Corporate Malice
by singabella
Summary: Twilight Xover. An unpopular lab manager is murdered and Bella Swan goes missing. As she becomes the prime suspect in the murder, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are called in to help find the truth behind the face of an upstanding pharmaceutical company.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I decided to try something a little different and write a crossover. I've already put up several Twilight stories, but never any ND/HB. Since I've written a few of these over the years, I thought I would try to incorporate the two together and create a mystery that hopefully all of you will enjoy. Please review and let me know how you like the story. I always enjoy reading what other people have to say.

* * *

**Corporate Malice**

**Chapter One**

**Edward POV**

It was a beautiful sunny day in Chicago. I was on my way to work this morning, and I just couldn't focus on the clear blue skies or even the traffic around me. Usually, I love my job at Volturi Pharmaceuticals, but today I just didn't have my mind on the job. I was worried about my girlfriend, Bella.

I ran my hand through my already unruly bronze hair as I thought about Bella. We had been dating for several months now after being introduced at work. We just clicked with each other from the first time we met. At first, we were just really good friends. We shared jokes with each other and spent time talking about anything and everything during breaks and lunches. This eventually progressed to us going out on group outings with other friends of ours. Of course, we weren't really going out as a couple on these outings. We merely went out to see a movie or hang out at a dance club in town. It was another way to spend time together outside of work.

Eventually, the nights that I drove back to my empty apartment after work seemed dull. I would walk around not knowing what to do with myself or just sit on the sofa in front of the television aimlessly changing channels without anything ever catching my attention. I knew something was missing from my life, but I couldn't really pinpoint what that something was at the time.

I'm not really sure what made everything click in place for me. It might have happened one night when I was over at Jasper's place. Jasper Whitlock has been my best friend ever since college, and I go over there from time to time to have some male bonding time. One night I was over there and his new girlfriend, Alice, shows up at the door. I watched them interact all night and realized that my life was devoid of that kind of love. That's when I realized that it didn't have to be.

It took me two weeks from that moment for me to get up the guts to ask Bella out on a real date. I was so nervous when I finally did ask that I was afraid I might throw up in front of her. Luckily, I managed to contain myself and was elated when she agreed to go out with me.

Our first date was the typical dinner and a movie that has become so cliché over the years. As much as I wanted to do something over the top and completely different, I knew that Bella wouldn't care for me spending lots of money on her. I ended up taking her to a nice restaurant, but not one that was so fancy that your meal would cost well over one hundred dollars. We had such a great conversation during that dinner that I knew from that point on that she was the one for me. Later, we went to see a nice romantic comedy that was in the theatres. Overall, our evening together was one of the best in my life, including that goodnight kiss.

Since then, Bella and I try to spend as much time together as we can. We still have our individual living spaces, so we don't actually see each other every night after work. Bella made up her mind that she needed at least two nights out of the week to just stay at home and do household chores like cleaning and washing her laundry. As much as I didn't like not being able to see her every single night, I knew she was right. I would never get anything done in my own place if she was around me every evening. The remainder of the time we spent at each other's apartments or out with friends.

The main reason I was worried about her this morning was because she didn't show up for dinner last night. We had made plans before leaving work yesterday. I suppose with most people it might not be a big deal if you don't show up once. However, Bella always showed up when something was planned or at least called to say that she was running late or couldn't make it. I haven't seen or heard from her since yesterday when I left work. It was out of character for her and made me worry. I just hoped that nothing was the matter.

As I pulled into the parking lot at work, my eyes scanned the vehicles already there hoping that one of them belonged to Bella. I couldn't see her car in the parking lot, yet. Of course, that made me worry a little more even though it was still early in the morning. A lot of people don't arrive until right around eight o'clock and it was only seven thirty. I told myself that I shouldn't be so paranoid as I got out of my silver Volvo and walked inside the building, swiping my badge at each entrance until I finally ended up in the chemistry lab where I worked.

In my state of worry, I had somehow failed to notice all of the hysteria and confusion that was around me. I looked around and saw most of my fellow coworkers, minus Bella, assembled into a small group near the front of lab. There were police officers and medics hanging around near the front office for Jane Aswad, our lab manager.

I spotted Jasper and walked over to the tall blonde. "Hey Jaz, what's going on?" I asked quietly.

Jasper turned his clear blue eyes to me and spoke softly, "They found Jane murdered this morning."

"What?" I asked in shock.

Jasper sighed. "Alec came in this morning to see her. He found her on the floor in her office with a bullet through the head."

I closed my eyes at the news. I hear about murders happening all the time on the news, but I never thought something like this would happen in my own workplace. I looked around to see if Bella had come in during the few minutes that I had been standing with Jasper. I just wanted to hold her to me and protect her from this grisly mess that I was now witnessing first-hand.

Jasper looked at me with a calculating expression. "Dude, what are you so worried about? It's not like we can't get another manager. Hopefully we'll find someone who isn't incompetent."

I shook my head at him. "It's not Jane I'm concerned about. I haven't seen or heard from Bella since yesterday at work. You haven't spoken with her by any chance, have you?"

Jasper shook his head quickly. "Hey Allie," he called.

Alice wasn't her typical bouncy self as she walked a few steps over to us. I couldn't help but to smile as I saw them standing together. Alice barely reached the five foot mark in height compared to Jasper, who was well over six feet tall like myself. She had short, black hair that was currently in a spiky hairdo compared with Jasper's honey blonde locks. Even with their differences in appearance, anyone could easily tell how in love they are with each other. They weren't as showy about it as others, but their love was definitely one that was lasting.

"Have you seen or heard anything from Bella?" Jasper asked her.

I watched as Alice shook her head before turning back to me. "The last time I saws her was yesterday before I left work. I know she still had some more work to do when I walked out the door in order to get everything tested for release."

Alice looked around with a confused expression on her face. "Shouldn't she be here by now?" she asked.

I glanced at the clock and saw that we had been milling around watching the police move through the lab that an hour had already passed. Bella still hadn't shown up.

"She didn't make it to dinner with me last night and never called to say that something tied her up," I told them. "And now she's still not here this morning, so I'm beyond worried. It's just not like her to not call someone."

Both of them nodded their heads. Jasper finally questioned, "Do you think you should mention it to the police?"

I firmly shook my head at that idea. "I don't want to bother them with their investigation. Even if none of us liked Jane, she still deserves to have her case solved by them. I don't want a killer on the loose. Secondly, I know that I have to wait for at least twenty-four hours before I can file a report with them."

We all stood there watching until the police finally finished taking all of their pictures and waved for some people to come in there and take the body to the coroner in order to obtain an autopsy. I was glad that the police kept us back far enough that none of us were ever able to get a really good view of Jane. I really didn't want to have an image of a dead body in my head for years to come.

Once the body was carried out, the police walked around and wrote down each of our names and a means of contact in case they had any questions for us regarding the case. After that was finished, the detectives all left.

The group of us slowly dispersed back to our benches where we worked. As I headed toward the back of the lab where my bench was, I was glad that I had a job that would be able to keep me busy today. I really needed to be able to do some work that would help me focus on something other than Bella possibly being missing and knowing that our manager was now murdered.

I sat down at my bench and worked for a few hours doing nothing but paperwork for some recent testing I had done on one of our new potential products that we were planning to sell. The FDA had given us approval after our initial submission for the new product, but I was required to submit the final reports of our stability testing so they could approve the expiration dating that would be put on the product when it was manufactured for the public.

When I finished with all of my paperwork, I saw that it was nearing lunchtime. My eyes once again scanned the entire lab looking for Bella even though I knew that I wouldn't find her. I made up my mind to go find Carlisle before he left for lunch and talk to him.

Carlisle Cullen was my uncle and also happened to be the plant manager for the building I worked in. I moved in with him and my cousin, Emmett, when my parents died in a car accident while I was in high school. I thought of him as my second father and knew that he would be able to give me some good advice for any situation.

I walked toward the front of the building where his office was located. I hoped that he hadn't gone to lunch yet. I was relieved when I saw him sitting behind his desk talking on the phone. He saw me standing in the doorway and motioned for me to come in.

I stepped into his office and closed the door behind me before taking a seat in one of the chairs facing his desk. My fingers drummed against the arm of the chair as I waited for him to finish his phone call. Finally, Carlisle said his final remarks over the phone and hung up before looking up at me.

"What can I do for you, Edward?" he asked.

I looked at the father figure sitting before me. He was in his early fifties but didn't look a day over thirty-five. His blonde hair had yet to start turning grey, and his skin was fair and wrinkle-free. I knew that any movie star would love to look like that without having to get treatments from a doctor.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. "I need some advice because I just don't know what I should do."

"Okay, why don't you tell me what the problem is?" Carlisle prodded.

"It's Bella," I responded. "She was supposed to come by for dinner last night and never showed up. I haven't heard anything from her since I left work yesterday," I explained. "I was concerned but thought that when she came in this morning, I would hear that she had car trouble or fell asleep on the sofa last night. But she hasn't come in today, and none of her other friends have heard from her."

Carlisle sat back in his chair with a thoughtful expression. "You do know that the police will find this coincidence very suspicious if you file a missing person report."

"Bella wouldn't harm anyone!" I said angrily.

Carlisle sat up and placed both hands flat on his desk. "Look, I'm going to be straight with you because I see you as a son. I know that Bella wouldn't harm a fly, but that doesn't mean that the police won't look upon her as a prime suspect. Now, I'm certainly not opposed to you filing a missing persons report. It might be helpful for them to be on the lookout for her regardless of whether they consider her a suspect or not. After all, we can always find a way to clear her of any suspicions," Carlisle explained calmly. "There is one other thing that you might consider though."

"What's that?" I asked calming down a little after hearing Carlisle explain himself.

"Have you ever thought about hiring a private detective?" he asked.

I shook my head because that thought had not crossed my mind.

"Since a private detective is working for you, they wouldn't be tied up trying to solve a murder mystery at the same time. All of their efforts could be put into the search for Bella," Carlisle told me.

"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea," I responded slowly.

"Edward, make sure you keep Esme and I informed of everything going on," Carlisle continued. "You know that we love Bella, too."

"Thanks for the advice," I told him as I stood up. Carlisle gave me a fatherly hug before I left his office.

I decided that I would make use of my lunch hour. I headed out the door and got into my car. I picked up a quick sandwich from a nearby fast food place and drove quickly to a park that was close by.

Bella and I would come out here to have lunch together a few times a week. It was a nice getaway from the work environment. There were never many people here, so we were able to have quite a bit of privacy with one another. The privacy was what I was looking for today.

Ever since Carlisle mentioned the idea of hiring a private detective, I remembered a newspaper article that I read a few months back. I'm not sure how it suddenly came to mind with everything else going on right now, but I was thankful for it.

The article mentioned a young detective who was very successful at solving cases that even the police had trouble with. It was also helpful that she lived in River Heights, which wasn't that far away from Chicago.

I pulled out my phone to dial information in order to get her number. I just hoped that she wasn't going to be busy on another case. I felt that I could use all the help I could get in order to find Bella.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Here's my weekly update for the story. Hope everyone enjoys it.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Nancy POV**

I had just stepped out of the shower and put some jeans and a button down shirt on after a nice run outside. It was quiet throughout the house because my father was at work and Hannah, our housekeeper who could almost serve as a second mother to me, was on a week long getaway with some of her friends from the bridge club.

I didn't really mind the quiet because it seemed like my life as a detective was usually fast-paced and hectic. I wouldn't change it for the world because my passion in life was solving mysteries. I've tried taking a brief hiatus from the detective work while I was in college, but it just didn't bring me the full satisfaction that I needed in my life.

Unfortunately, this also meant that my relationship with Ned Nickerson suffered. We dated for a long time before I decided to go away to school while he remained here. We both thought that the distance might be hard, but our love for each other would get us through the tough times.

All of that changed when I started working on mysteries again in college. I'm not sure if Ned was never truly supportive of my habit for getting involved in mysteries or if he just didn't like the fact that he wasn't around to watch over me while I was away. Whatever the case might be, my detective work on top of us being so far away from each other really caused our relationship to take a hit.

We tried visiting each other on the weekends when there was time, but that was to no avail. After one last ditch effort about a year ago, we finally broke away from each other. I would love to say that I was upset about not spending the rest of my life with Ned, but when I walked away that final time, all I could think of was the sense of relief it brought me.

We still see each other on occasion because I moved back home after graduation. I've been having trouble deciding where exactly I want my life to go from here on out, so I just came back home until hopefully an epiphany will hit me.

I'm thankful that I do see Ned that it's not one of those awkward conversations where neither party knows what to say or how to act around the other one. We're still able to retain our friendship with each other, and I hope that nothing ever gets in the way of that.

I do wish him the best in his life because Ned's finally found the girl of his dreams. He met her at a baseball game and they've been together ever since. I even received an invitation to their wedding a few days ago.

It was time for me to figure out where my life was going. I was happy that Ned found his path in life, but I was still at a loss for what I was supposed to do with myself.

My degree was in journalism. I've written a few free-lance articles for the newspaper, but I couldn't imagine a life behind a desk. I suppose there was also investigative journalism, but I can't really decide what I think about that prospect. I've also thought about becoming a full-time private investigator like Frank and Joe Hardy instead of just solving mysteries as they come along.

I pushed all thoughts of my career aside as I settled down at the kitchen table with the newspaper and a glass of tea.

The phone ringing brought my attention away from the weekly criminal report in the paper. I grabbed the phone and saw that it was a Chicago area code before answering.

"Hello," I said.

"Is this Nancy Drew?" a male voice asked.

"Yes, this is Nancy," I answered.

I heard the male on the other side take a deep breath before finally speaking. "My girlfriend is missing, and I would like you to help me find her."

I went into detective mode at this point and began asking the typical questions. "Have you filed a missing persons report?"

"No," he said. "I was told that she hasn't been unaccounted for long enough."

"How long has she been missing?"

"I last saw her last night as I was leaving work," he told me. "Bella was supposed to meet me last night for dinner but never called when she didn't show up. She hasn't come in to work today either. Both of those things are atypical behavior for her."

"Have you considered the possibility that she might have needed to get away from something?" I asked. Although I was thinking that this Bella might have wanted to get out of her relationship with whoever I was talking to, I didn't want to be so presumptuous as to actually come out and say that to him.

"Bella would always tell me or one of her other friends if there was something wrong," he stated emphatically.

"Okay," I relented. I decided that I should at least give this guy the time of day and see what I can do for him. Although, it might be helpful if I had some useful information like a name and location. I guess he probably forgot to provide that in his panicked state. "Why don't you tell me your name and where you're located?"

"Edward Cullen and I live in Chicago," he said. "Would you be able to work on the case?"

"I'll need some time to pack, but I'll be up there by this evening," I told him. "Why don't you give me directions and phone number where I can reach you if I have any further questions?"

Edward gave me directions to his house in Chicago and a phone number where I could reach him at if I needed something. I jotted it all down and quickly got off the phone with him.

I never liked to hear about someone disappearing without a trace because you can never tell what kind of outcome it might be, but I was still excited about finally having another case to work on. It's been a few months since my last mystery, and I really need something to keep my mind off of personal problems.

I dragged my suitcase out of the closet with one hand while dialing one of my best friends on my cell phone.

"Hello?" Bess Marvin answered.

"Hey Bess," I responded. "I just found a mystery up in Chicago. I was wondering if you wanted to join me."

"When are you going there?" Bess asked.

"I was planning on leaving in a couple hours, so I could be there by dinner tonight," I told her.

"I'm sorry, Nan," Bess apologized. "I have a date with Dave tonight. If you want to wait until tomorrow, I should be able to get a few days off work so I could go up there then."

"I wish I could wait until tomorrow," I told her, "but there's a girl missing and I really want to be able to get started as soon as possible."

"Oh okay," Bess stated. "Let me know if you need any help with the case since George is still away on that hiking trip."

"Sure thing, Bess," I said before hanging up.

I guess I was going to be working on this mystery by myself.

I quickly packed all the clothes and toiletry items that I would need for a few days. I decided that since Chicago was only a couple hours away, I could always drive back here to get anything I needed in addition to what was packed.

Once I finished packing my suitcase, I placed the bag in the trunk of my blue Mustang. I decided that instead of leaving a note for my father, I would call his office. It rang a couple of times before I had the secretary patch me through to my father, Carson Drew.

"Hey Nancy," Carson answered.

"Hey dad," I replied. "I received a phone call about a missing persons case in Chicago. I was just about to leave, but wanted to make sure you knew where I was going to be."

"I'm glad you called," he told me. "Just make sure you're careful and keep in touch."

"I will," I responded.

We exchanged a few more pleasantries before we finally ended the conversation. Now that everyone knew where I was headed, I got into my car and backed out of the driveway. I quickly began making my way to Chicago and the hopes of a good mystery to keep me occupied for a little while.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Hope everyone is still enjoying the story. Feel free to leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Carlisle's POV**

I normally get to work around five in the morning everyday because I liked to have plenty of time to get all of my normal responsibilities as the plant manager taken care of as well as be able to oversee some of the day-to-day operations in manufacturing. That's why I was surprised when it wasn't the alarm clock that woke me up this morning.

Instead, the shrill ringing of the telephone in my house awoke me from my sleep. I answered it as quickly as I could without waking up my wife, Esme, who was sleeping beside me.

"Hello?" I asked.

I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands and took notice of the time on the clock. It was only three in the morning.

"Carlisle," said a voice that I immediately recognized as that of the company president, Aro Volturi, "you need to get down here right away."

"What's going on?" I asked sitting upright in bed. I knew that something had to have happened for Aro to be calling me at this time of night.

"Someone murdered Jane," Aro answered. "The police are already here investigating the scene of the crime."

"Okay, I'll be there right away," I replied before hanging up.

I couldn't believe that something like this would happen at my workplace. I took one of the quickest showers of my life before getting dressed in my typical suit. I wrote Esme a note telling her that I had to get to work and would call her about it later today.

I walked out of the door knowing that today was probably going to be a bad day.

It had been hours since I first arrived at the company. I was met at the doorway by Aro. He herded me into the lab where Jane was murdered. They were still taking pictures of her body as I came in, so I averted my eyes as quickly as I could because that was an image I did not want to have for a lifetime.

I think I must have talked with a dozen police officers before I finally had a moment to myself. Of course, by this time people were arriving for work. None of us had even thought of closing the company today because we had been too busy with the police for hours this morning. I was just thankful that none of my employees would see Jane's body because the medics had already placed her in a body bag to take her for the autopsy.

I retreated to my office hoping to escape for at least a short period of time from the turmoil going on around me. I had mountains of paperwork and messages left by the secretary for people I needed to call back.

I busied myself for the next few hours handling the daily business and forgetting about the horrible crime that happened this morning. I was just hanging up from my last phone call of the morning, when my phone rang.

I picked up the phone and said, "This is Carlisle Cullen."

"Carlisle," Aro's voice spoke over the phone. "I was thinking some more about this bloody situation. I'm sure the news outlets are already aware of what took place this morning, and I want the criminal responsible to be taken into custody as soon as possible. We have to be aware of the public perceptions of the company, and bad publicity is severely detrimental for business."

I shook my head slightly. Aro was always focused on the bottom line. "What exactly did you have in mind?" I asked.

"What do you think about hiring somebody to come in and investigate?" Are responded.

"Are you referring to a private detective?" I questioned with my brow furrowed.

"Yes," Aro answered. "Why don't you see if you can line someone up?"

"Sure, I'll work on that right away," I told him.

Aro barely responded with a "bye" before the dial tone was present on the line.

I glanced at the clock on my desk and saw that it was still a little early for lunch. As much as I could use a break from this day, I probably needed to see what I could do about lining up a detective. I've never had the occasion to need one, but I did happen to have a friend in the field.

I searched through my list of contacts until I came up with the person I had in mind. I haven't talked with my old friend in a long time, so I just hoped the number I had for him was still operational. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number listening to the other line ringing.

"Hello?" answered a voice from my past on the third ring.

"Fenton?" I questioned even though his voice was identical to what I remembered.

"Is that you, Carlisle?" asked Fenton Hardy. "How long has it been? Five years?"

"I think that might be accurate," I answered. "That's the last time I was up in New York City."

"You should come back sometime," Fenton responded. "We definitely have some catching up to do."

"We'll see," I told him.

"As much as I'd like to believe this is just a friendly phone call to catch up on some old times, I know you better than that," Fenton said. "What's wrong?"

I sighed. "I think I could use your help here."

I went on to explain about the murder that occurred sometime overnight and how I was being pressured a little from Aro to make this nightmare disappear.

After I finished telling Fenton about everything that was going on, I waited for him to respond.

After a long pause, I asked, "Can you help?"

"I wish I could tell you that I would be down there right away to work on the case, but I'm currently tied up with a court case that I have to testify for this week. There's no way I'd be able to offer the kind of help you need long-distance."

"Do you know of anyone else that I can trust with something like this?" I asked him.

"You remember my two sons, Frank and Joe?" he asked.

"Aren't they in college now?"

"No, they graduated a couple years ago and have opened up their own private detective agency," Fenton replied. "I can promise you that they have my seal of approval and will do their best to get this case solved as quickly as possible if you want them to help."

I tapped my foot nervously on the floor as I pondered over the idea. I wasn't so sure about bringing in a couple of boys so young, but I did trust my friend's judgement.

"Okay, I trust your judgement of your boys," I relented.

"One other thing, Carlisle."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Since we're talking about a murder case that the Chicago police are already working on, it might be a good idea for them to go undercover," Fenton explained.

"How would that work?"

"Well, you could get Frank and Joe hired with the company in positions that would allow them to have access to the lab and be able to get to know the other employees. Considering what you've told me already, it sounds likely that it's an inside job, so one of your employees will probably know something about the murder."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" I questioned him. I certainly didn't want to put his sons in danger.

"I won't lie and say that it's all fun and games," Fenton responded seriously. "Although, Frank and Joe know how to avoid sticky situations, so I wouldn't worry about them."

"Okay, I guess I'll talk to someone in HR about getting them hired," I said.

"Give me directions for where they can meet you when they get into Chicago, and I'll send them packing."

I was spouting off directions to my home when I noticed Edward standing in the doorway. I motioned for him to come in since I was almost done with the call to Fenton.

Edward walked into my office closing the door behind him before having a seat as I said my final goodbye to Fenton. I could tell something was the matter because Edward looked on edge and nervous about something.

I asked him what was wrong and listened to him tell me all about how he hadn't seen or heard anything from his girlfriend since he left work yesterday. I had enough knowledge in how investigations were conducted that she would probably end up being a suspect in the case just because she wasn't around.

I thought of Bella as a daughter and knew her well enough to know that she could never hurt a fly much less murder someone in cold blood. I did the only thing I could think of at the moment considering everything that was going on around me. I suggested that Edward find a private detective to find Bella.

I just hoped that my suggestion wouldn't cause a problem for Frank and Joe Hardy.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N Hope you guys don't really mind the changing points of view. I felt it was better to do it this way in the beginning to show where all the characters are and their frame of minds. It will probably only focus on our main characters after a couple more chapters. Feel free to leave a review. All characters belong to their respective creators, who are unfortunately, not me.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Frank's POV**

Joe and I were sitting at our desks in the small detective agency we set up. It was a pretty small place that could be considered slightly larger than a typical studio apartment. It might not be much, but both of us were proud of it.

We had gone in together with some of our savings over the years to lease the place and open our very own business straight out of college.

Although Joe had occasionally thought about joining the police force, he ended up deciding that being a private detective was more his style. I never waivered in my thoughts of what my career should be. I always knew that solving mysteries was what I needed to do with my life.

If only everything could be so easy in life as finding a career.

I watched lost in my thoughts from my desk as Joe scarfed down a sub sandwich. I knew what I wanted in life and where I went wrong in trying to get it.

My first life-altering decision was to put my career before anything else in my life. At the time I didn't really understand how that could make a difference. It was only after a few years in college that I began to understand all of the ramifications that something like that would cause.

Joe and I went to New York University together after we graduated from high school. While Joe decided to major in criminal science, I decided that psychology would be a good route for me to take. My reason for this decision was because I thought that knowing how the human mind works would make my dream job as a detective a little easier.

The only problem that I ran into was that in trying to be the best I could be in school, I ended up trying to analyze everything about my girlfriend, Callie Shaw. She didn't complain too much about it at first, thinking that I was just goofing around. Even when Callie did complain about my trying to analyze every emotion or sentence she spoke, I just ignored it.

It led to our relationship of many years dissolving into one where we are barely able to be in the same room with each other. It broke my heart the day Callie walked out of my life, but I decided that from that day forward, I was going to learn from my mistakes. That way, if I ever run into another girl that I could love, I wouldn't ruin the relationship by trying to be some stupid geek and overthinking everything. I would leave the psychology for questioning suspects and not the people I care about that surround me daily.

I was brought back to the present by the sound of my cell phone ringing. I picked it up and answered, "Hello?"

"Frank, I'm glad you weren't tied up and could answer the phone," my dad's voice spoke.

I chuckled along with him at the joke he tried to make. Joe and I do seem to always find ourselves in those kinds of situations. One would think that we would have learned how to avoid them by now, but we still get into sticky situations.

"What's up, dad?" I asked him. I noticed Joe looking over with curiosity brimming.

"I have a job for you and Joe to work on if you're not busy with another case," dad replied.

"No, we're between cases right now, so we have time to work on whatever you need," I told him. I saw Joe perk up in his desk chair when he heard me speaking of being between cases. Joe hates to sit behind a desk all day.

"Great," my dad said. "A friend of mine in Chicago called me earlier today about a murder that took place at his company. I thought that it might be helpful for you two to go undercover and see what you can find out for him."

"Okay," I replied. "Do you know any more details or should we just wait and find out when we get to Chicago?"

"All I know is that a lab manager was murdered at work sometime during the night and was found this morning," Fenton responded. "The Chicago police department is obviously working the case, but I believe that Carlisle's boss wants the matter cleared up as quickly as possible to save the company from any possible negative reaction from the public."

"Why do people always care about public perception?" I asked grimacing. "They should care more about the criminal being put behind bars."

"Well, we might feel that way, but that doesn't mean that most people feel that way," my dad told me. "Anyway, you and Joe need to be on a flight to Chicago in a couple hours. I've already booked the tickets for you, so just make sure you're at the airport in time."

I spoke a little longer with my dad and took down directions to Carlisle Cullen's home where Joe and I would be meeting him this evening since dad had already booked flights for us. I guess it was a good thing it doesn't take us long to pack because we needed to be at the airport in two hours.

Joe came over to my desk as I was hanging up the phone. "So, do we have a new case to work on?" he asked.

"Yeah, dad has a friend of his that called him about a murder that occurred overnight at his company," I told Joe. "He wants us to fly to Chicago in a couple hours and go undercover at the company to try to find the murderer."

Joe swung the keys of our van in front of my face. "When are we leaving to get packed?"

I snatched the keys out of Joe's hand and replied, "As soon as you get in the van."

After locking up, I hurried over to the van and drove back to our shared house. Joe and I purchased a small two bedroom home when we got out of school with a little help from our parents. We spent some of our free time trying to fix it up and make it a little nicer.

I pulled into the driveway of the house a few minutes later, and we quickly made our way to our bedrooms to pack a bag.

As I dug out my suitcase from the bottom of my closet, I wondered how much I should pack. I wasn't really sure how long we would be staying in Chicago. I decided that I would pack enough for about a week. Hopefully, if our stay was longer than that, I could either buy some extra supplies or do some laundry somewhere in town.

After zipping up my suitcase, I met Joe in the hallway with his in hand and we both walked back outside to the van. After getting inside, I quickly pulled back out of the driveway and headed for the airport. Looking at the clock on the dashboard, I realized that we should be in Chicago by dinnertime.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Hope you guys enjoy having this perspective of the events taking place in the story. I figured that this would help tie some of the various things together that are happening. As a little side note, I do want to say that there is a lot more going on that what Bella sees, so you shouldn't be concerned that I might be revealing the "suspect" early on since that's not really the case. We'll leave those revelations for later on. Enjoy, review, and remember that I don't own any of these wonderful characters.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

**Bella's POV**

I was beyond exhausted as I dropped onto the bed in the hotel room we were staying in for the night. It seems that in the past twenty-four hours my life has turned upside down.

I thought back to the events that had just occurred. Today had been the typical day at work at Volturi Pharmaceuticals. I had been busy all day working on a validation process for one of our newer products that we made. There was barely time for me to fit in a quick bite to eat for lunch before I needed to get back to work, so I wouldn't be staying there all night long.

As it got closer to five o'clock when we would typically get off work, Alice had come over to help me try to finish things up. Edward also came by to remind me of our dinner arrangement for the evening. I smiled at him and assured him that I would meet him later for dinner once I finished things up.

As five o'clock approached, I ushered Alice our the door because I didn't want anyone to stay late on my account. Fifteen minutes later, I was left alone in the lab with the exception of our lab manager, Jane, who was in her office on the phone. I had walked over to one of the HPLC systems and placed my samples in the tray before sitting in front of the computer to set everything up to run overnight.

I had just finished hitting the green button on the computer screen that would initiate my run when I noticed a very tall man enter the lab. He didn't appear to see me, which wasn't surprising because the equipment on all of the benches made it easy to mask who was actually in the lab.

I watched as he went into Jane's office. The next few minutes would haunt me.

The man pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at Jane's head. I watched as she shrank back in fear of him before he pulled the trigger. I didn't hear anything except a slightly muffled noise, so I guess that part of the reason the barrel of the gun was so long was that it contained a silencer on the end of it.

My hand involuntarily came up to cover my mouth as a whimper escaped from my lips. The slight sound was all the man needed to turn his head in my direction. I quickly ducked down between the benches and tried to decide how I was going to make it to the nearest exit without him shooting me.

I peeked around the corner of where I was hiding to find the man walking slowly in my direction. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and hoped that he wasn't able to hear it. I inched along the benches trying to stay out of sight as much as possible until I could reach an exit.

I had finally made it within eyesight of a door when I felt someone grab my wrist. I turned quickly away from the direction of my assailant and barely kept from letting loose a scream when a large hand covered my mouth.

"Bella, calm down," a voice whispered in my ear. "I'll get you out of here."

I immediately felt a little sense of relief when I heard Jacob's voice in my ear. Jacob was fairly new to the security team at work, but he took his job seriously and we had become friends over the few weeks he had been working here. I knew I could trust him to get us both out of here.

I nodded to show I understood and he removed his hand from my mouth and grabbed the hand closest to him. He began leading us in a half-crouched position toward another door that didn't lead outside. I wondered why we would be going toward this door since it led into the manufacturing area, but decided I would just let Jacob lead the way without trying to question him since we did have a man with a gun trying to locate us in the lab.

We made it to the door quickly and silently. As Jacob opened it up softly, I looked over my shoulder to find the man staring at me from several feet away.

"Run!" I shouted to Jacob who glanced past me and then yanked me through the door.

I followed his lead as we ran through the manufacturing area because I had never been back here before. I knew Jacob had to do rounds over the course of the day so he not only knew his way around, but had badge access to all parts of the facility.

We followed several twists and turns until I saw that we were in the loading dock area. Jacob hurried us to a door that was off to the side and opened it up showing the dimly lit parking lot.

"Come on," Jacob said tugging my hand. "We still need to hurry and get out of here before Felix shows up."

"Who's Felix?" I asked breathlessly as I ran behind him.

"Later," Jacob replied briskly.

We finally stopped in front of an older model car. Jacob unlocked the doors and I hurried to get in the passenger seat. He was driving off in no time going as fast as he safely could around the premises of the facility.

Once we were finally able to turn onto the highway, Jacob raced down the streets trying to put as much distance between us and the company as he could. My blood was racing through my veins from everything I had just seen.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

Jacob gripped my hand firmly in his. "Bella, I won't let anyone harm you. Just trust me to keep you safe until this is all over."

"I trust you," I spoke softly.

I watched as Jacob pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. Before I had a chance to ask who he was calling, the person on the other end picked up.

"Hey man," Jacob greeted. "Are you still at work because I need a favour?"

Jacob nodded his head before replying, "Yea, I'll owe you big after this."

"I need you to make sure the coast is clear and then go and grab Bella's belongings from the lab. We'll meet up later after you have them, and I'll give you a better explanation on what's going on. See you in a bit."

Jacob hung up the phone and turned his head toward me. "I didn't want your stuff to be found there tonight or tomorrow morning whenever the police arrive," he explained.

"Why would that matter?" I asked. "Not that I'm not grateful for you trying to get my stuff or anything," I quickly added.

He flashed a quick smile my way. "Well, it will be easier for you to get around with things like your phone, money, and keys to your apartment. Really, I'm just not sure how it would look if the police came on a murder scene to investigate and they find all of your belongings still in the lab without you being present. I'm not a cop, so I don't know if that would be something in your favour or not."

"You think the police might actually think I murdered Jane?" I asked in a slightly higher pitched voice than normal.

"All I'm saying is that I think it could be a possibility," Jacob replied.

"What are we going to do?" I asked now picturing myself being arrested and sitting behind bars in jail.

"You are going to stop worrying," Jacob replied, "and I'm going to keep you safe."

"I should probably call my dad," I said softly. "He's going to be so worried."

"Bells, I really don't think you should be in contact with anyone right now."

"But why not?" I asked puzzled. "It's not like my dad or even Edward are going to put me at risk."

I watched as Jacob sighed heavily. I could tell that he was trying to decide how to word his response.

"I agree that your dad would never intentionally put you at risk, but he doesn't really know what's going on here. In fact, there's probably a lot about this situation that we don't even know about," Jacob explained. "I just think it would be best for us to stay low key and not bring him into any of this business."

I nodded because Jacob did make sense. I would never want my dad brought into this business and possibly put him at risk.

"What about Edward, though?" I asked. "I was supposed to meet him for dinner and now all of this happens. The least I can do is call him to let him know I'm okay."

"We can't trust him," Jacob replied simply.

"What do you mean _'We can't trust him'_?" I almost screeched. "Of course we can trust him. I trust him with my life."

"Maybe you shouldn't," came his reply.

Before I had a chance to argue again with him, Jacob turned his eyes to stare me down. "Edward is family of the plant manager. Now, granted, I will say that I wouldn't expect something like this from either of them, but we still have to be careful. Jane getting murdered tonight was because someone ordered it, and until we know who did, we need to be very careful as to who we trust."

I sat back in my seat with my arms crossed and a pout on my face. I realized I was probably acting like a little schoolgirl, but it was hard to help it after being told that I couldn't be in contact with anyone I knew. I understand the reasons for this, but it didn't make it any easier to accept it.

Ten minutes later Jacob pulled into a small diner that was situated in one of the seedier parts of town. We got out of the car and I couldn't help but to scan the surroundings to see if Felix might be hiding in the background waiting to get to us.

Jacob led me inside the diner and to a table in the back corner of the place where someone was already seated. I glanced worriedly up at Jacob, but he didn't seem concerned by the mystery person that was at the table. He even seemed to relax just a little bit.

Once we were at the table, Jacob motioned for me to slide in opposite the guy sitting there. Jacob sat down beside me after I was situated.

"Seth, did you manage to get everything?" Jacob asked him.

I took a closer look at the man sitting in front of me only to realize that he was probably a few years younger than myself. He still had a boyish face on him with short, dark hair that was slightly unkempt.

"I got everything you asked for," Seth replied handing over my purse and jacket to me.

"Thank you," I told him with gratitude.

"I'm guessing that I probably don't want to know exactly what happened at work tonight?" he asked us.

"Probably better that you didn't," Jacob responded.

Jacob turned to me, "Seth works security for the second shift. That's why he was able to retrieve your things for you without getting caught."

"If you guys need anything else, I can run by your places sometime and grab a few things for you," Seth offered.

"Here, you can take our apartment keys and head over there sometime tomorrow to pick up some clothes for us," Jacob said handing over a key to Seth and then looking at me to do the same.

I dug through my purse until I found my key ring and pulled off my apartment key and handed it over to Seth. I didn't much like the thought of some guy digging through my clothes, but I guess I didn't have much of a choice in the matter right now.

"Where are you guys going to be staying for the night?" Seth asked.

"We'll probably stay in random motels until things die down a little bit," Jacob answered.

After we had all enjoyed our dinner, Jacob and I left the diner. I was guessing that now that we had both been fed, we were probably on our way to find a place to stay at for the night.

I grimaced when I saw the place Jacob had pulled into. It was a motel that looked like it might be a pay by the hour joint. Definitely not something I particularly wanted to stay in. I was already questioning if the bed was even going to be safe to sleep on. I was definitely running on fumes after the day I've had and wanted to get some much required sleep. I just didn't want to do it on a nasty bed.

I walked in the office as Jacob checked in for us. I watched as he handed over some cash to pay for the night and the old lady behind the counter handed him a room key.

Jacob ushered me out of the office and we walked down the side of the motel looking for our room. When he unlocked the door and turned on the light, I was waiting to be disgusted by the appearance of where we would be staying tonight. However, on the bright side, the room wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be.

None of the furnishings matched in the room, which wasn't too surprising. Although, it did surprise me that everything looked extremely neat and well-kept. Of course, then I noticed that the room only had one bed.

"You couldn't have possibly gotten a room with two beds?" I asked Jacob.

Jacob smirked at me. "Scared of sleeping in the same bed with me?"

"No, of course not," I retorted shifting uncomfortably.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to try anything on you in the middle of the night," he replied back with another smirk.

"You wish," I muttered.

"You can go ahead and fall asleep if you want," Jacob told me. "I'm going to take a quick shower before I go to sleep."

I plopped down on the bed exhausted and I watched Jacob head into the bathroom and close the door behind him. I laid down on the bed and got comfortable thinking that I would at least attempt to brush my teeth after Jacob got out of the shower. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this without having a toothbrush or even toothpaste, but I liked to keep my nightly rituals as in tact as possible.

Those thoughts drifted away as I quickly fell off into a deep sleep before Jacob even stepped out of the shower.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N Still don't own any of the characters. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Six**

**Nancy POV**

It was twilight by the time I reached Chicago. I followed the directions Edward had given me over the phone in order to reach his house. I knew it wasn't an apartment that he lived in based on a lack of some sort of generic address with an apartment number. I really thought he had probably managed to buy a small home that he lived in. What I did not expect was to eventually drive up a long, winding driveway that led to a mansion on the outskirts of town.

I slowly pulled around the gravel driveway to the front of the house. I wasn't sure if I was really supposed to park here, but decided that someone would be able to show me where I can leave my car once I introduce myself.

"This is some place," I said to myself as I got out of the car.

The mansion, for lack of a better word, was painted white and contained large columns in the front. It could probably be an old plantation house that someone had taken the time to restore. As I walked slowly toward the steps leading up to the front door, I gazed all around. Everything from the shrubbery surrounding the front of the house to the trees and grass out front was perfectly manicured. I wondered how many people it took to keep everything looking this perfect.

I walked up the four steps leading to the front door. There were hanging flower baskets spaced evenly apart along the railing that ran along the front portion of the house. I couldn't help but to smile as I thought of how much Hannah would love to see something decorated so tastefully.

I was really looking forward to seeing what the place looked like on the inside. Part of me still questioned how Edward would be able to afford a place like this, but perhaps he came from a wealthy family. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard for me to find out.

I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to come open the door. After everything I had seen outside, I expected to have the door opened my a butler. This led me to be somewhat caught off-guard when the door opened to reveal a very nice looking woman who seemed to be in her mid-thirties with auburn hair that fell to her shoulders.

The woman smiled at me before holding her hand out. "Hello, you must be Nancy."

I smiled and and shook her hand. "I'm Esme Cullen," she continued. "I believe you spoke with my nephew earlier today."

"Hello," I finally spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Since you referred to Edward as being your nephew, I'm guessing that this house actually belongs to you?"

Esme laughed. "I guess it would seem odd to you if someone Edward's age owned a home like this. My husband, Carlisle, and I actually like to find older homes to live in. I love the challenge of taking an older home that has some flaws and restoring it to its former glory."

"I have to admit that I'm impressed with what you've done here," I told her.

"Oh, I'm sorry for being so rude," Esme said shaking her head. "Please, come inside instead of standing out there on the porch."

I stepped past the open doorway and gained my first view of the interior of the house. There was a grand staircase that was not quite in front of the doorway. Everything in this entryway was done in light hues of colour. It even looked as it Esme had chosen her antique collectibles to follow along with her decorating theme.

"You really have quite the talent at decorating," I complemented her.

"Thank you, dear," Esme said smiling. "Now let's see about getting you settled."

"Edward!" Esme called.

We didn't have to wait very long before Edward appeared. I was struck by how handsome he was. Edward was slightly over six feet tall, which was something I greatly admired in a man. He had a bronze tint to his hair, which looked as if he had been running his hands through it a lot lately. His facial features were chiselled. Even with his clothes, I could tell that underneath was a body that was definitely well-toned and developed. In short, he was drool-worthy.

"You must be Nancy," Edward spoke in his velvety voice as he held out his hand to me.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," I told him as he shook my hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," Edward replied politely.

Even though he was being the perfect gentleman around me, I could tell that his girlfriend's disappearance was bothering his greatly. Other than the ruffled hair, his eyes had dark circles under them that appeared as if he hadn't gotten enough sleep. While he was here in the room with me and Esme, I could tell that his mind was preoccupied with other things.

"Edward, would you be a dear and show Nancy to her room?" Esme asked.

"Sure, mom," Edward replied.

"I left my bag in the car," I told them. "Just let me go get it first."

"Edward can grab it for you, Nancy," Esme told me.

I watched as Edward went outside to my car and picked up my suitcase from the trunk. I was glad that I was working for such nice people. It can really make a job seem more worthwhile when I care about the people I'm working for.

Once Edward was back inside, he said, "Follow me."

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need something," Esme said before I followed Edward up the stairs. "Also, I'll make sure we give you a better tour of the house when our other guests arrive."

"Thank you," I told her earnestly.

I followed behind Edward as he carried my suitcase up the stairs. I could tell that this house was huge, and it would probably take me a little while to grow accustomed to where everything was located in it. Edward began walking down the hallway on the second floor. I followed behind him quietly because he seemed to be in his own little world far away from the present.

Edward finally stopped at the end of the hallway in front of a door. "This is the room my mother thought you would like to stay in while you're here," he told me before opening up the door.

The room was beautiful just like the rest of the house that I had managed to see. The bed was a wooden four-poster canopy bed. The bedding on it was a mixture of golds and reds and the canopy held sheer pieces of golden fabric that were draped around it. Everything from the fabrics of the chairs inside the room to the curtains on the windows matched it.

"This is wonderful," I complemented as I took everything in.

"My mother will be happy that you find it to your liking," Edward responded.

I looked toward him with a raised eyebrow. "How could I not? Your mom is the most talented person I know at decorating."

A small smile finally graced Edward's lips at the complement I gave his mother. "Yes, she does have a special talent when it comes to decorating."

"There's an en-suite bathroom through that doorway over there," Edward told me pointing in the direction of the doorway in question. "Make yourself at home and dinner will probably be ready in about an hour."

Before I could say another word, Edward disappeared out of the room. I took another look around in wonder at the beauty of the room I was staying in before I decided that I should get freshened up before dinner.

I opened my suitcase and decided to go ahead and put all of my clothes away first. I found the closet easily, since it was the only other door in the bedroom other than the ones leading back out into the hallway and into the bathroom. I was surprised to see that the closet already held several dozen empty hangers in it, so I decided that I would use those to hang up all my clothes.

After putting away the last item, I picked out a nice emerald green sweater and a black skirt ensemble to wear for dinner tonight. I walked into the bathroom and was once again surprised by the vastness of it.

I had thought that since this was a guest room that the bathroom would be small in size, although not necessarily cramped. I was amazed to see a separate shower and tub in the bathroom along with another smaller section that held a toilet behind a closed door. The vanity area was large enough that even Bess wouldn't find an issue having enough room for all of her beauty products.

I quickly took a shower and washed up. After drying myself off, I put on the outfit I had picked out and put a little makeup on my face. After adding some matching jewelry, I looked myself over in the mirror. Pleased with my reflection, I picked out some shoes to match what I was wearing. Since this was simply for dinner at home instead of a night out on the town, I went with some black flats.

I glanced at my watch and saw that dinner should be read in about fifteen minutes, so I decided to make my way downstairs and have a look around for a bit until it was time to eat. I walked slowly back down the hallway taking notice of just how many rooms there were on this one level of the house. It made me wonder if the Cullens had a large family or if they just entertained a lot of guests in their home.

I reached the staircase and walked down taking a second look at everything I had seen earlier from the chandelier hanging in the foyer to the paintings decorating the walls. After reaching the bottom of the staircase, I could hear faint voices coming from my right.

I turned to walk into the living room where the voices were coming from only to stop short at the sight I saw.

There was a tall man with blonde hair and fair skin that must be Edward's father talking to two young men who were almost equal to his height. It was the young men that caught my attention because I would know those two anywhere.

"Frank? Joe?" I asked in amazement.

At the sound of my voice, all three turned to face me. "Hey Nan," Frank greeted me with a smile. "I thought I recognized your car out front."

"Yeah, there's not many people who drive a blue mustang with a license plate that says 'EYESPY' on it," Joe commented.

"How come you're here?" I asked as I went up to give them both hugs.

I noticed that Frank held onto me a little longer than was necessary. With his dark hair and lean body, he always seemed to be able to get my heart beating just a little faster than normal.

"I hired them," the blonde gentleman finally spoke. He held out his hand to me. "I'm Carlisle and you must be Nancy Drew."

I looked up at Carlisle with confusion on my face. "You hired them to find Bella?" I asked him.

Carlisle shook his head. "No, Frank and Joe are here to go undercover at Volturi Pharmaceuticals and find out anything they can about who murdered Jane Aswad."

I held up both hands, "I'm confused. I didn't hear anything about a murder from Edward."

"Dinner's ready," Edward came in to announce before anyone could respond to my questions. "You must be Frank and Joe Hardy," Edward spoke holding out his hand to shake. "I'm Edward Cullen."

"It's nice to meet you," both of the Hardys said as they shook his hand.

"I'll lead you to the dining room," Edward told us. "After dinner, I'll give you a quick tour of the house before we all settle down and talk a little more fully about everything that's going on."

"Lead the way," Joe said. "I'm starving."

I saw Frank elbow Joe in the side and give him a look before turning to find Edward staring at me and offering his arm. I looked up at Edward with a raised eyebrow only to have him lean down to whisper in my ear, "My mother would kill me if I didn't escort a lady to the dining room."

I shook my head in disbelief as I took his arm. Edward led me toward the dining room with the others following behind us. Upon reaching the dining room, Edward pulled out a chair for me to sit in. I gave him a smile as he walked around to the other side of the table to sit beside Esme.

Carlisle took a seat at the head of the table adjacent to Esme while Frank and Joe took seats on either side of me. I looked over at Frank who was glaring at Edward. I wondered what Edward might have done to earn that kind of glare from Frank, who was normally very calm and laid back. Edward didn't really seem to notice the glare from Frank. He seemed to once again be preoccupied with something. That something was probably Bella. I felt for him because I didn't know what I would do if my boyfriend suddenly went missing without any explanation.

I shifted my focus from the drama going on between Frank and Edward to the food on the table. Esme had prepared dinner for an army it seemed. Before me was a chicken casserole as our main dish with several vegetables like green beans, roasted potatoes, butternut squash, and corn for sides. Esme had also prepared some freshly baked bread and a salad.

"Everyone help themselves," Esme said.

I watched as Joe immediately grabbed the nearest thing to where he was sitting and started spooning roasted potatoes onto his plate. I took a little bit of everything and marvelled at how good it all tasted.

"Esme, this is wonderful," I complemented her. "It reminds me of home and Hannah's cooking."

"Is Hannah your mother?" Esme asked with a smile.

I shook my head, "No, she's our housekeeper. Although, I consider her like a mother considering how much cooking and cleaning around the house she does. Hannah is also great when I need someone as a sounding board and my dad's at work."

"Well, I hope you make yourself feel at home while you're here," Esme said reaching across the table to pat my hand.

We all finished healthy portions of our meals before Esme announced that she had dessert ready in the kitchen. I was already full from the wonderful food she made that I wasn't sure where I would be able to put any dessert.

Esme brought in a large container of chocolate brownies along with bowls filled with vanilla bean ice cream. The brownies were still warm from the oven as she placed one in each dish for us to eat. Before handing them out to us, she went back in the kitchen. I found out when she came back to the table that she had forgotten some hot fudge sauce that she had made in a small sauce pot. She drizzled some of the fudge over each of our dishes before handing them out to us.

I took my first bite of the dessert and almost moaned in delight. "Esme, this is fabulous," I told her.

"I'm glad you like it," Esme said. "I made plenty so you three can have as much as you want tonight or even later as a snack."

"Thanks for the meal. It's delicious," Joe said between mouthfuls of food.

We all finished our dessert quietly enjoying every bite. Afterwards, Esme retired to the kitchen to start cleaning up and Carlisle followed her in order to help. That left me sitting at the table with the three guys. Frank was still in a mood because he hadn't spoken one word during the whole meal. I couldn't imagine what the Cullens must think of him with the way he was acting.

"Shall we take the tour?" Edward asked.

I nodded and went to get up only to find Frank hovering behind my chair to help me. Instead of looking at me, however, he was glaring once again at Edward who finally seemed to have noticed. Edward's jaw clenched a moment in what could only be annoyance before he chose to ignore Frank altogether.

Irritated by the male egos around me, I ignored Frank's hand and got up by myself. I strode over to where Edward was waiting to lead us on a tour of the house. Instead of leading me around like he did earlier, Edward kept his distance as he began showing all of us around the ground floor.

We walked through the living room and into the foyer before venturing into the other side of the house. This side contained a music room, which held a shiny, black grand piano as well as a few other musical instruments along the side of the room. The furniture in this room was minimal and basically consisted of a couple chaise lounges.

Further along we entered the next room, which was a library. There were wall to wall shelves that were full of books. Most of these books even seemed to be hard bound copies. The room had a bay window with a large window seat. It also contained a few comfortable looking chairs and a large sofa for people to sit on while they read.

The final room on this side of the house that Edward showed us was Carlisle's office. It was done in a similar style to the library except there was a large wooden desk with an office chair in the room. Behind the desk were more bookshelves that seemed to contain books that were more professional in nature compared to the novels in the library.

"If you ever need Carlisle, you'll probably find him in here," Edward told us. "This is a sanctuary for him and he spends a good portion of his time here when he's home from work."

"So, do you guys have a pool?" Joe asked.

Edward looked at Joe as if he were insane. I was starting to wonder if Joe was even thinking about the case they were supposed to be working on. So far, it seemed as if his head was revolving around food and entertainment. Then again, this is Joe Hardy.

"There's a heated pool in the back yard along with some other features that you might like to use when you're not working on a case," Edward replied stiffly.

I could tell by the twitching of Joe and Frank's jaw muscles that this could get ugly fast. I decided to step in before anything happens.

"Why don't you show us around the rest of the house?" I asked politely before giving an icy look to the Hardys.

Edward's face softened a moment at my request before leading me back toward the front of the house. When we reached the staircase, he led me up the stairs to the second floor where I was staying.

"Most of the rooms on this floor are guest rooms," Edward told us. "We keep a few set up for some of my friends who like to stay here on a regular basis."

"So you still live with your parents?" Frank asked in a mocking tone.

Edward glared at Frank before responding. "Actually, I have an apartment in town. I just like to stay with my Aunt and Uncle on occasion because I think it's important to keep up my relationship with my family."

"Oh, I thought Esme and Carlisle were your parents?" I asked.

"No, my parents died when I was young and Esme and Carlisle took me in," Edward explained to me. "I think of them as a second set of parents and we'll very close to each other."

I think Edward ended the tour sooner than he would have normally because of the growing hostility between him and the Hardys. It irked me to no end that they were behaving like this around someone who was definitely hurting because of his missing girlfriend.

By the time the tour was over, I walked back downstairs with Edward at my side. I was anxious to find out everything that I could in order to get a good start on solving the mystery. I knew that it was probably too late tonight to do anything for the case, but I could at least make plans for tomorrow based on everything I heard tonight.

I took a chair in the living room and watched as everyone except Esme settled in. Frank and Joe were seated on a nearby sofa and Carlisle and Edward were seated next to each other in chairs across from me in the living room. Esme came in to bring us a snack and something to drink. I wasn't really hungry after that wonderful meal, but I sipped on some tea as I waited to hear more details about what's going on around here.

"First of all, I guess I'll start by explaining a little more about what's going on at Volturi Pharmaceuticals," Carlisle spoke.

I leaned in with complete attention for every word that was to come out of his mouth. I could tell out of the corner of my eye that both Frank and Joe were sitting up straighter to listen to Carlisle speak.

"Early this morning, I got a call from Aro Volturi. Aro is the CEO of the company," Carlisle began. "He called to tell me that I needed to get down to the plant because our lab manager had been found murdered in her office. By the time I got there, the police and medics were already on the scene. I don't have a lot of information to give you about what their findings might have been. All I can really tell you is what I saw for myself. The manager, Jane, was shot in the head. I believe I heard a police officer say something about her being shot from the front and that she probably knew the person, but this is merely heresay."

"We can always talk to the police to see what additional information they might be able to give us," Frank said.

"I didn't notice anything else because there were just too many officials around. Although, I'm not sure I would have wanted to get a better view," Carlisle admitted. "It's bad enough that they didn't manage to get everything cleared out before my workers came in for the day."

"Do you have any idea who might have wanted to kill Jane?" Joe asked.

"I can tell you that nobody liked her," Edward spoke up. "Although, I can't really imagine anyone I know killing her."

"Why is it that nobody liked her?" Frank asked civilly.

Edward shot a glance at Carlisle before answering. "Mostly, it was because she was incompetent. I'm not quite sure how she ended up getting hired for her position, but she didn't know how to do her job properly. Most of the QC chemists had to figure out how to solve their own problems because if they asked her for help, she would just give them some BS answer and walk away."

"So you didn't like to report to her?" Joe guessed.

"I don't work for QC, so I didn't have to report to her," Edward answered. "I was just unlucky enough to work in the same lab that she was in."

"I've already lined everything up for you two to go undercover tomorrow at the plant," Carlisle told Frank and Joe. "Since the murder took place in the lab, I'm placing you there as a couple lab techs. It's the easiest position for me to get you in unnoticed as well as you'll find that as a tech you get a lot more access to areas of the plant than most people."

"Thanks, should make things easier when it comes to asking people questions," Frank told him.

"So, do you have any additional information to tell me about Bella?" I asked Edward.

"Nothing I can think of other than what I told you over the phone," Edward said. "I haven't seen or heard from her since I left work yesterday."

"I have to agree with Edward that this is unusual behaviour for Bella," Carlisle spoke up. "I just hope nothing has happened to her."

"Do you have a key to her apartment?" I asked.

"Yes, would you like it?" Edward asked.

"It might be helpful for me to go by there tomorrow and check the place out," I told him as I took a key from him. "I could probably also start looking into phone records and maybe even check out any credit card usage she might have had recently to see if it gives us any clues."

"I'm grateful for anything you can do to help find her," Edward said.

We were interrupted by Carlisle's cell phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket to answer.

"Hello?" he answered.

We all watched as he listened to the other side of the conversation. His face was becoming more grim by the minute.

"I'll be down there in a few minutes," Carlisle said before hanging up.

He looked up at us. "That was the police department. They have some video footage that I need to see. I thought you might want to come along."

It took only minutes before we were all out the door and driving down the highway toward the police station. Since we were all staying at the same house, we let Carlisle drive us.

We pulled into the station minutes later and walked up to the front desk. A lady behind the desk looked up at us. "Carlisle Cullen?" she asked.

Carlisle nodded and she led us to a room that held two police officers and a television.

"Carlisle Cullen?"an officer with wavy blonde hair asked. "I'm Officer Turner and this is my partner, Officer Harrison."

"These are some private detectives that are going to be helping me on the case," Carlisle said gesturing to us.

"I'm Frank Hardy and this is my brother Joe," Frank introduced as he gave a firm handshake to each officer.

"Nancy Drew," I said.

It was always a good thing to get the cops on your good side because they are more willing to give you information about the case. However, as I watched Officer Turner look me up and down, I wished that I was anywhere but here right now.

"You said you had a video for us to see?" Carlisle probed.

"Yes, we hoped that you could help identify the people in it," Officer Harrison said.

Officer Harrison, who was probably in his early forties with greying hair, started the video. I watched as the screen showed an area of the plant that was most likely part of a warehouse. There seemed to be several pallets stacked off to the sides where a clear view of a docking bay was. I could see a regular sized door next to the docking bay that was also in the video.

We waited for a couple minutes as the scene stayed exactly the same. Then, I watched as two people, a male and female, came onto the screen from somewhere in the plant and ran out of the door next to the docking bay.

Officer Harrison stopped the video and rewound it to right before the two people came onto the screen. This time when they showed up on the video, Officer Harrison paused it at a spot where both of them seemed to turn their heads to look behind them. They then zoomed in on the still image of the two people and I heard Carlisle take in a breath.

We all looked toward him for confirmation of what I already knew judging by his facial expression.

"You know these two?" Officer Turner asked.

Carlisle nodded before taking another deep breath and exhaling loudly. "That's Jacob Black and Bella Swan."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N Sorry it's been a little longer since an update, but life sometimes happens and things got delayed a bit. Hopefully, I'll be back on track now with weekly updates. I still don't own any of these characters. I just put them all together in a story and see what happens between them. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

**Frank POV**

The alarm clock went off earlier than I would like. I turned it off with a groan and rubbed my face with my hands. Today was our first day at work posing as lab techs, so we were required to have the same work schedule.

Carlisle said that everything was already set up for us. He briefly informed me last night after we got back from the police station of what our day might look like. Carlisle said that we would first have to go over to the main building and fill out paperwork for human resources. After we filled out the paperwork, we would complete a drug test. Once that's done, we would finally make our way over to the Liquids plant and begin a short training course as well as a tour of the facility.

After questioning Carlisle about how long all of this would take, he informed me that it doesn't take nearly as long as it seems. We should actually be in the lab ready to start working before lunch. I was glad that it wasn't going to take all day because our time in the lab is when Joe and I are going to be able to get the most information out of people and hopefully get to the bottom of what's going on with Jane's murder.

After dragging myself out of bed, I walked out of the room and across the hall to where Joe was sleeping. I knew that a simple knock on the door probably wasn't going to be enough to wake my dear little brother up. I opened the door only to hear what sounded like a freight train coming from his direction on the bed. It really wasn't necessary to sneak up on him while he was asleep, but I did it anyway. Once I was standing next to the head of his bed, I leaned over so that my face was mere inches away from his ear.

"Wake up!" I yelled.

I laughed as Joe jumped up in bed while looking around somewhat disoriented. When he was finally awake enough to see me, he grimaced.

"Man, why did you have to wake me up like that?" Joe said running his hand through his short blonde hair.

"We don't want to be late for our first day of work," I said with a shrug. "So, are you up?"

Joe through a pillow at me in response as I walked back out of his room.

After closing the door to my room, I walked into the bathroom and took a shower. Ten minutes later, I was showered and dressed ready for the day. I wasn't sure what Joe and I were supposed to do about breakfast here. I decided that we would both be ready early enough this morning that we could make a stop at a fast food place for a breakfast biscuit or something.

I opened my bedroom door and headed toward the stairs. I could hear Joe singing in the shower off key on my way. I headed downstairs and into the kitchen only to find everyone else already up.

Nancy was helping Esme make pancakes while Carlisle was filling glasses up with juice. I noticed that Edward was sitting at the counter with a look of sadness in his eyes.

Last night when we arrived back here, Carlisle and Nancy took Edward aside to tell him about what was caught on camera. I can only imagine what an image like that might do to him.

Nancy gave me a brief smile as she put a plate of pancakes in front of me. She turned back around before I could fully thank her for it. I had barely managed to take a couple bites before Joe stepped into the kitchen acting all chipper as if he loved waking up early in the morning.

Everyone ate their breakfast in silence. I'm sure we were all thinking about the past events and what our plans were for the day. Esme started washing up our dishes after we finished eating. Edward hurried out of the kitchen with a muttered goodbye. Carlisle gave Esme a chaste kiss before heading out the door and reminding me and Joe what time we should be at work today. Joe said something about getting our stuff ready and put in the car before he also left the kitchen.

As Nancy left the kitchen, I gently grabbed her arm pulling her to a stop in the living room. There wasn't anyone around so I thought this might be a good place to say what I needed to say to her.

"Nan, I just wanted to apologize to you for yesterday," I told her.

Nancy looked up at me with her beautiful blue eyes before responding, "What got into you yesterday? I've never seen you act like that before."

I couldn't tell her the truth that I was jealous of her and Edward. First of all, I now understand that there was nothing to be jealous over, and second, I just didn't want to admit that much to her right now.

"I guess it was just the last minute trip here," I explained with a shrug.

I could tell that she didn't buy that for a second.

"So, why was Edward so glum this morning?" I asked to change the subject.

Nancy sighed. "You need to brush up on your detective skills, Frank. You're not very perceptive lately. Edward's upset because Bella is still missing and most of the people surrounding him think she's the prime suspect in the murder investigation. He's also upset because she was caught on camera running away with Jacob Black. Apparently, Jacob has had a crush on Bella for a while now. Edward's worried that he might have done something wrong that ended up pushing Bella to Jake."

I expelled a breath at all of that. "How did you find out all of this?"

"I talked to Edward last night when I first noticed how upset he was," Nancy replied simply. "Now, as much as I'd like to stay around here talking, you really need to be getting to work."

"What are your plans for the day?" I asked.

"Well, I'm going to start by trying to get a trace on Bella's cell phone and credit cards so I'll know the minute it's used. From there, I'll just where things lead me," Nancy said.

"Okay, well good luck," I told her.

"You too," Nancy replied before walking away from me and back up the stairs.

I wondered when our relationship with each other had become so awkward, but I realized that it was probably due to me acting like a dominating boyfriend. I decided that I really needed to stand back as much as possible in order to get my Nancy back because I really missed just hanging out with her as a friend.

I headed out the door and was relieved to find Joe already outside and waiting on me. I'd much rather him wait on me than me having to find where he was.

"Do you know where you're heading?" I asked Joe as I slid myself into the passenger seat.

"Carlisle gave me directions," Joe answered. "Although, I can't believe you would doubt me. I never get lost."

I barely contained a snort at that remark.

"Just get us to work," I told him.

Even with the rush hour traffic, it didn't take us long to get to Volturi Pharmaceuticals. Joe pulled up to a gate with a guard shack sitting beside it and waited for one of the security guards to come out of it.

A minute later, an older man with greying hair sauntered out of the building as if he had all day. "Can I help you with something boys?" he asked.

"It's our first day here," Joe told the guard.

"Okay, I'll buzz you through," the guard replied. "Head over to the main building to check in and fill out all of your paperwork. It's the one in the middle if you don't know."

I looked out through the windshield to see which building the guard was pointing to. Volturi Pharmaceuticals was situated on a large plot of land that held three large buildings. The one in the middle was apparently mostly for sales and human resources. The other two buildings on either side of it faced each other and were split into the types of products they made. One building made drugs in tablet form while the other building consisted of both liquids and ointments.

Joe pulled up in front of the building in the middle and we both got out of the vehicle and headed up the front steps. After entering the main lobby, a secretary took down our names and told us to take a seat until someone came to get us.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged woman dressed in a navy suit walked into the lobby.

"You must be Frank and Joe Hardy," she said. "I'm Beth Winters, head of human resources. Why don't you two follow me and we'll get all of your paperwork filled out."

Joe and I trailed after Beth who led us through a large area filled with cubicles. I could tell by the earpieces that everyone was wearing in the cubicles that these people must be part of the sales team at the company. After leaving the large cubicle area, we turned down a smaller hallway that contained offices on either side of it. Beth walked into one of the open offices and we followed in behind her. I closed the door behind us and Joe and I grabbed a seat in the two empty chairs in front of her desk.

I thought that one day I might enjoy getting a regular job doing something I enjoy. Then, I end up getting put undercover in one of those jobs where I actually have to go through the motions of looking like I was going to be working for the company for a while. I think that I've completely lost all interests in getting one of these jobs after hearing Beth drone on and on about the company handbook, which looks to be about five hundred pages long, followed by filling out the endless paperwork that's required to be employed here. Even though I was already warned about it, the thing that really made me against all forms of regular jobs was the drug test.

I lost track of time while we were going over all the policies and filling out paperwork. When we were finished with all of that, I was about to rise out of my chair when Beth told us that we needed to do a quick drug test before we were free to go to the training department in the liquids building. Now, the fact that we had to take a drug test had slipped my mind, but I honestly thought it was going to be something like a little bit of hair they cut off or even a saliva test. As our luck would have it, we had to donate a urine specimen.

The thing that made this all the more embarrassing was that Joe and I couldn't just take our specimen cup into the bathroom and come back out with the sample. Beth actually grabbed a male from human resources to accompany us into the bathroom and make sure we weren't tampering with the test. It's hard enough to do something like that on command, but it's even worse when you're being observed.

Of course, Joe and I passed the drug test with flying colours. Upon seeing that we actually passed, Beth took us over to a guy named Spike that worked in IT. He took a photo of each of us on his digital camera and then printed out our badges that we would have to use each day we worked here as a means of getting through the gate out front where the guard shack was as well as gaining access to the liquids facility.

With our new badges in hand, Joe and I left for the liquids building. We drove the short distance to the building and parked in the already full parking lot. After making a short trek up to the door, Joe used his badge to open it and grinned widely at me making some remark about it being "cool".

I followed Joe inside where we stopped next to the security guard stationed by the door.

"Hi, today's our first day and we were told to meet someone in training. Do you know who we need to see?" I asked the guard, whose badge indicated his name was Embry Call.

Embry was as tall as Joe and I but had a darker complexion like someone from a Native American background might have. He gazed at us calmly with his dark eyes before replying. "You two want to see John Franklin. He's the guy that will give you a tour of the facility."

After Embry pointed the way to John's desk, Joe and I walked up to find John sitting on the computer acting like he was doing some sort of email. In reality, all he was doing was typing some gibberish on the screen before backspacing to delete everything that he had previous typed. I raised an eyebrow at Joe, who just gave a slight shrug.

Joe cleared his throat after we realized that John hadn't noticed us standing there for the past couple minutes. He jumped in his seat at the noise before spinning around to face us.

"Why, you must be Frank and Joe Hardy," John greeted. "I'm John Franklin."

We quickly shook hands with each other before John stood up. "I guess you're ready to have a tour of the building," he said.

We followed alongside him as he started by showing us the office area that was in the front. John told everyone our names as we passed by them. Some welcomed us cheerfully while others just merely nodded and continued on with their work.

We paused a moment as John poked his head into an office at the end of the corridor. John spoke a moment to the person in the office before motioning us forward.

"Frank and Joe, I'd like you to meet the plant manager, Carlisle Cullen," John introduced.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know who Carlisle was since we were undercover at the company, so I decided to play it safe. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Cullen," I said extending my hand for him to shake.

"The pleasure is all mine," Carlisle said playing along as he shook my hand and then Joe's. "I hope you two enjoy working for Volturi Pharmaceuticals."

"I'm sure we will," Joe replied.

John then led us out of the office area and down a long hallway that led to two double doors.

"These doors lead back into our production area. Before you ever go through them, you need to put on scrubs, safety glasses, a hairnet, and shoe covers to prevent any contamination. If one of you ever decides to grow a beard or any other facial hair, we also require a beard cover to be put on," John explained.

He led us into a changing room where we were shown where everything was kept for us to put on before we entered the production area. After changing, we walked back into the hallway and John swiped his badge to open the doors.

We walked into a large area that was separated in multiple hallways with various rooms down the length of them. I could see forklifts moving around carrying pallets filled with bags of something as well as a few that were hauling large drums.

"Well, this is the beginning of our production area," John told us gesturing to the space around us. "These rooms in front of us are used for weighing out the raw materials that we need to make our products."

John gestured toward some double doors that were to our left. "The raw materials are stored out there in the warehouse until they're needed to make a batch. Part of your job as a tech is to come out here on a daily basis to help our Raw Material Chemists sample the new raw materials that get sent in here from our sources."

We followed along as John began walking toward the right. "After the raw materials are weighed out, they are carefully added into a mixer in the order of addition that we need according to the Batch Production Records."

"How long does it take to make a product?" I asked.

"Well, that really depends on what the product is," John answered. "Every product is different and requires different amounts of raw materials, varying mixing times, etc. It could take anywhere from three to twenty hours to make a product."

Joe whistled softly, "Wow, that long?"

John nodded his head. "Yes, it can take that long. Besides, that doesn't even count the amount of time it takes to package the product."

By this time we were passing by some huge tanks where employees were diligently looking at controls and checking off sheets they held on clipboards. We passed this area quickly. The next thing I saw were several packaging lines.

There seemed to be up to six people working on each line. The lines were all automated with the machines automatically filling the bottles, putting caps on them, and wrapping labels on each one.

"So if this process is all automated, why do you need so many people on each line?" I asked John.

"Well, we don't really need that many people. The reason we keep the number that we do on each line is in case it breaks down. Sometimes it might jam up and then they can manually put caps or labels on the bottles to keep everything moving along. It's tedious work when that happens, but also necessary to get the product out the door," John explained to us.

"Well, that's the majority of our production area, so I'm going to take you into the lab where you'll be working," John told us.

We headed back the way we came. After exiting the double doors, we discarded all of the special clothing that we had put on before entering. John led us back down the hallway where we went through a door on the left hand side. We walked a few steps before stopping in front of another office, which happened to be empty at the present time. I could see that it must be a secretary who worked in here because I could see the front lobby of the liquids building facing her desk.

"If you guys ever need any supplies like pens or post-it notes, just tell our secretary, Bree," John informed us.

A few steps further down the hallway led us to another door. John swiped his badge and we entered the lab where we would be working. I watched as people in white lab coats moved quickly throughout the lab. Some were sitting in front of computers while others were working at various machines or at long, black benches.

John led us over to a man in his early thirties with long, blonde hair tied back. "James, this is Frank and Joe Hardy," John spoke. "Frank and Joe, this is James Hunter. He'll be the one in charge of your training in the lab. Hopefully, I didn't take too long with the tour and you'll be able to get in some training before lunch."

James glanced at his watch before nodding. "I'll have plenty of time to teach them how to use the density meter."

John left us to get back to work so we could begin our lab experience.

"Okay, have either of you guys ever used a density meter?" James asked us.

"Based on what I've seen looking around, I'm not sure we've used much of anything in this lab before," Joe said.

"Okay, well don't worry about it because a lot of this stuff you won't be using anyway," James told us. "Most of the machines are for the chemists. We just help out on occasion by doing some of the small stuff. Now, follow me, and I'll show you the density meter."

We followed James toward the middle of the lab. On one of the long benches sat a small machine with a little touch pad. There was tubing that seemed to run all around it connecting things together, but I really wasn't sure what I was looking at.

"This is our density meter. Basically, it measures the specific gravity of our products," James explained. "Production will bring in samples that we call "In-Process", meaning that they've finished making the batch but haven't packaged it yet. We measure the specific gravity of these samples and give them the results so those numbers can be entered into the automated bottling machines."

"Do we use this for any other reason?" I asked.

"Actually, a lot of the chemists need the specific gravities measured on the samples they're testing in order to calculate the results of their assays. If they don't have time to come over here and measure the samples themselves, you'll find that they'll get you to help them by doing it when you're not too busy."

James then walked off for a moment and came back with some samples. "These samples just came in and need to be measured. I'll show you how to do the first one and then watch you guys do the other two to make sure you know what you're doing."

Joe and I watched intently as James used one of the open tubes to suck up some liquid. He pointed out how the liquid ran through the tubing and into a small column inside the machine that would be heated up to twenty-five degrees before taking the measurement. Minutes later, the printer beside the machine spit out a piece of paper that contained a bunch of information on it. James pointed out where the specific gravity measurement was on the bottom of the paper. He then showed us where to write the lot number and sample identification on both the printout and in the logbook that was kept by the machine. Finally, we were shown how to clean the machine.

Once James finished showing us the cleaning process, he stepped back and I began the process of performing the specific gravity on the sample I had. It took me longer than James because I was trying to be careful to remember everything he did and do it right the first time. When my measurement printed out, I labelled it in the same fashion as James.

Joe followed after me and James congratulated us both on getting the hang of the density meter so easily. By this time it was nearing lunch, so James told us that we would do some more stuff afterwards.

Joe and I were pointed toward the breakroom where we could have lunch. The company had a cafeteria set up inside it where people could order what they wanted to eat on a daily basis. Joe and I lined up and looked over the menu that was provided.

Joe ended up ordering a bacon cheeseburger with fries, while I got a grilled chicken wrap. We looked around for a place to sit considering the room was starting to fill up. I noticed a large table that was set for six where a small girl with short, black hair was waving her arm frantically at us.

I nudged Joe with my elbow and nodded my head in their direction. Joe and I carried our food and drinks through the crowd toward the table where four people already sat with their lunches in front of them.

Before I could speak when I reached the table, the girl spoke, "Hey, I know you guys are new here so I thought you might want to sit with us today."

"Thanks," I said politely as we sat down in the two empty chairs.

"I'm Alice Brandon," the girl said. "This is Jasper Hale and his sister, Rosalie. Beside Rose, is Emmett Cullen."

I took in the group around the table as Alice introduced them to us. Jasper was lean with wavy, blonde hair and was sitting next to Alice with his arm around her shoulder. His sister, Rosalie, looked like a model with her perfect facial features and long, blonde hair. The burly guy beside her was Emmett. He had short, dark hair and was apparently dating Rosalie considering the affectionate manner they had between the two of them.

"It's nice to meet all of you," I said. "I'm Frank and this is my brother, Joe."

"Welcome to Volturi," Jasper greeted.

I thought this might be a good chance to gain some insight into the murder investigation. Although, it appeared that Joe was one step ahead of me.

"So what do you guys know of that woman that was murdered here?" Joe asked.

All four of them exchanged looks with each other.

Rosalie was the one to speak up. "I'd say good riddance."

"I take it she wasn't liked?" I prodded.

Emmett snorted. "Jane was barely tolerated. When she first got hired in here, it seemed as if she was going to do such great things for the lab. Over time we all realized that she really threw the wool over someone's head."

"What do you mean?" Joe asked.

"Well, for starters, we do most of our analysis on HPLCs and Gcs, which use a special kind of software to gather the data and integrate it for you in order to get a numerical result with minimal input on your part," Jasper piped up. "Jane acted like she not only knew how to use all of the equipment, but also could use the software just like the rest of us. But when she actually had to do the work, she didn't know her ass from a hole in the ground."

"We pretty much stopped going to her for anything and just tried to solve our own problems when they came up," Alice stated.

"So, I guess considering no one liked her, a lot of people could be suspects for the murder," I said.

Alice shook her head vigorously. "No, I don't believe that anyone in the lab had anything to do with her murder. Each and every one of us might have talked poorly about her and some may even have wished for her death, but nobody here would actually kill her."

"So there's nobody you can think of that might have had anything to do with her death?" Joe questioned.

"Nobody I can think of," Emmett said with a shake of his head.

We ventured into other topics of discussion from that point on. I really wanted to ask if they knew anything about Bella's whereabouts, but they wouldn't know that I knew about her disappearance and I didn't want to blow our cover.

After lunch was over, we walked back into the lab with our lunch group. Alice decided to introduce us to everyone in the lab since no one had done that earlier.

The finished product and stability chemists consisted of Alice, Jared Daniels, Angela Webber, Kate Middleton, and the missing Bella Swan. Raw materials contained Emmett, Paul Stevenson, Mike Newton, and Tyler Crowley. Research and development was made up of Edward Cullen, Rosalie and Jasper Hale, and Ben Cheney. The last group I met was microbiology. Their members included Eric Yorkie, Laurent Barra, Victoria Jackson, and Garrett Masters.

After Joe and I were introduced to everyone in the lab including the two secretaries, Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory, we found that several products had been brought in to have the specific gravities taken.

I got to work at the density meter and James took Joe with him. I heard him telling Joe about dumping samples, but I was busy with the density meter by this time so I didn't pay as much attention to what they were talking about.

After I was finished performing all the specific gravities on those samples, I filled out all the paperwork that was necessary. I saw Joe near the back of the lab and walked over to see what he was working on.

"So what did James put you up to?" I asked when I reached Joe.

Joe was standing by a sink with a cart that was piled up with crates. Each crate was filled with samples of various products.

"James took me upstairs to the stability chamber," Joe told me. "I guess that's where they put certain lots when they want to monitor it over the lifetime of the product. We grabbed all of these crates to bring down here and discard because they are all the expired products for the month."

"Do you need any help dumping them?" I offered.

Before Joe could reply, Alice came prancing up to us. "Hey, could one of you do these specific gravities for me?" she asked. "I really need them done today, so that I can get the samples prepared."

"Sure, I'll do it for you," I told her grabbing the samples from her.

I left Joe by the sink and went back to my station by the density meter to run Alice's samples. I was thinking that Alice only had one or two samples for me to run, but when I reached the density meter, she had placed no less than twenty samples beside it. I sighed and pulled up a chair as I got to work.

I realized that one of the nice things about being a lab tech is that the jobs were somewhat mindless. I just repeated the same steps over and over while waiting on the machine to print the result out. It left me with plenty of time to watch what was happening around me in the lab.

I could see Edward sitting at his bench bent over his notebook writing something down. Rosalie was busy examining something in a beaker. Alice kept racing around the lab going back and forth between her bench and computers with vial trays in her hand. I can't imagine how much energy she has to keep that up all day long. Her boyfriend, Jasper, was standing in front of a fume hood burning something inside a crucible.

It was a flurry of activity going on around me. I guess that's why I happened to notice that James was acting a little strangely.

I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye. He was gazing all around the lab as if he was checking to make sure no one was paying any attention to him. It seemed as if he was convinced no one was watching and he made his way out the back door of the lab. I wouldn't be able to tell where he was headed without walking away from the density meter, and it was a far enough distance from that door that I was pretty sure I would lose him even if I did try to follow him. I was hoping that Joe might have gotten a better look at where he headed since Joe was working closer to the door dumping samples. I checked my watch, noting the time that James left and settled back into my work.

Thirty minutes later, James walked back into the lab from the back door. He was carrying a bottle of a solvent that one of the chemists had apparently requested because he placed it on Emmett's bench.

It seemed as if he might have left for a genuine reason, but I didn't really believe it would take so long just to grab a bottle. I decided to keep this information in the back of my mind and maybe try to look into it further.

The day quickly went by for both Joe and I. In the last fifteen minutes before work was over, we finally got to sit down and take a much needed breather.

"So how did you guys enjoy your first day?" Emmett asked heartedly.

"It sure was busy," Joe said.

"This is actually the slow part of the year," Emmett told us. "Just wait until cold and flu season hits."

Joe groaned at that statement and Emmett laughed before walking off.

"You ready?" Joe asked after looking at the clock.

"Let's go," I replied getting up. "I want to check in with Nancy and see how her day went."

"I'm sure you do," Joe said sarcastically as we walked out of the door and into the darkening skies of the parking lot.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

**Nancy's POV**

A lot of people out there think that the work of a detective is all action. A whole bunch of sneaking around and then gun fights or something. Mostly, my work is spent like today with a whole bunch of miscellaneous phone calls and visits.

After Frank and Joe left for work this morning, I finished getting ready and headed down to the police station. I was hoping that I might be able to get some additional information out of Officer Turner.

I stepped up to the front desk in the police station after I arrived and asked the young woman, "Is Officer Turner in today?"

She glanced at me before picking up her phone and telling him that someone was here to see him.

I waited less than a minute before Officer Turner came up to greet me.

"Nancy Drew correct?" he asked with a smile.

"Officer Turner," I greeted after nodding in affirmation.

"Please, call me Cole," he replied as he ushered me through the station to where his office was located.

After closing the door to his office, he gestured for me to have a seat across from his desk. I sat down and took a quick look around at his office. Everything in it was generic for any police station. I did notice that Cole only had a few personal items in here. Other than a picture on the wall of him with a couple other people in the wilderness and a diploma, the office was completely devoid of anything to make it look used.

"So what can I do for you today, Nancy?" Cole asked leaning back in his chair.

"I wanted to know if the police department had already put traces on phones and credit cards for the two individuals in the video," I told him.

Cole nodded, "We started that this morning after the suspects' identities were confirmed."

"I want to be on the contact list if anything goes through," I told him.

"Now, I'm not so sure about doing that," Cole responded hesitantly.

"Cole, you know that it helps to have as many people working on a case as you can," I responded sweetly hoping to talk him into it. "I would be able to help you out greatly if I'm allowed access to any information."

"I'll allow it, but only as long as you don't get in the way of the investigation," Cole relented.

"Thank you," I told him. "I don't suppose you have any new information on the case?"

Cole looked at me speculatively. "I might be willing to divulge any potential new information over dinner tonight?"

I did my best to keep my face from registering shock. I felt an unbelievable to need to find out anything that might be new with this case, but I didn't want to go out on a date with this man sitting in front of me. Even though he was warm and welcoming on the outside, there was still something about him that made me uneasy about going somewhere with him.

"I'll think about it," I hedged as I stood up to leave.

Cole grasped my hand in his before I could exit his office. "I do hope you'll take me up on the invitation."

I nodded politely and he released my hand from his grasp. I tried to keep from walking in a hurry from his office, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally made it back outside to my car.

I got in the car considering where I should head off to next. It was already lunchtime and I considered calling Frank to check up on him, but I decided that I should hold off because he might not be available to really talk about the case right now.

With that in mind, I put the keys in the ignition and drove down the road to find a decent place to eat lunch.

I pulled to a stop in front of a little cafe. I saw a newspaper stand nearby and paid for the paper before walking inside. The hostess led to a small table on their patio so that I could enjoy the beautiful weather.

I enjoyed a delicious bowl of soup and half a sandwich while taking my time to catch up on some current events. After paying for my meal, I got up with a plan.

I was going to go to the homes of Jacob Black and Bella Swan and see what I could find. I didn't know where Jacob lived, so I found a pay phone and went through the ratty phone book that was there.

I scrolled through the listings until I found his name. I copied down the address and phone number on a little notepad I had in my purse. I wasn't really planning to call him, but I thought having a number might be beneficial.

I found my way back to my car and got in. I pulled out of the parking spot and headed down the road toward the address I had for Jacob Black.

When I reached the neighbourhood Jacob lived in, I could immediately see that he probably didn't have a lot of money. The area was a little on the shabby side with extremely small houses that were in desperate need of some fresh paint.

I found Jacob's house easily, but there wasn't a vehicle parked out front. I didn't really expect my job to end up being so easy that I would find both Jacob and Bella inside this house, but it's always worth a shot.

Looking around, I noticed how quiet the neighbourhood seemed. I was pretty sure that most people were at work right now. I decided to get out of the car and walk up to the front door. I walked up to the door and tried the knob. Of course the door was locked so I took another quick glance around to make sure nobody was out and about before pulling out my set of lock-picks from my purse.

I carefully jiggled the pick inside the slot before hearing a tiny click that meant the door was now unlocked. I put the set back in my purse before walking inside and closing the door behind me.

I didn't want to be caught in the home, so I decided to make this as quick as I could. I walked through the house quickly. Jacob didn't own a lot of furniture leaving the small spaces open. I rifled through his mail and looked around for anything that might be incriminating. After about fifteen minutes of searching, I couldn't find anything that would either help me with the murder investigation or even show where he might be located right now. Jacob really didn't have a lot of personal affects.

At a loss as to where they might be found, I quickly left his house and locked the door behind me. The only place I had left to check was Bella's apartment. I knew she wouldn't be there, but maybe she had left a clue that would give me a hint as to where she was hiding.

Since Edward had given me a key to her apartment along with directions on how to get there earlier this morning, I started up my car and turned around heading off to her place.

I arrived at Bella's apartment building about twenty minutes later. She lived in a nice apartment complex that seemed well kept. I walked up the stairs to her second floor apartment and used the key to open the door.

Unlike Jacob's place, Bella's apartment was perfectly clean and nicely decorated. Bella looked like the type of person who didn't spend a lot of money on furnishings, but was capable of making things work together to get a look that worked for her. I smiled as I looked around. She had picture frames on many of the surfaces. It seemed to be a mixture of her family in friends in most of the photos. I saw several of Edward and Bella that made me smile because of the love they clearly had for each other.

I noticed her phone sitting on an end table with a notepad by it. Bella didn't have a message light blinking on her answering machine, so I didn't bother with that. I looked at the notepad again and found a pencil nearby. I lightly traced over the surface of the paper to see if something had been written on the sheet before it. I shook my head as I saw that the only depressions left on the paper indicated the beginning of a grocery list.

Sighing heavily, I looked around to see if there might be any more good places to find a clue to her whereabouts. I started into the kitchen as my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered without even checking the caller ID.

"Hey Nan, how was your day?" Frank asked.

"Well, I haven't found anything that would help lead me to where Bella's hiding out," I replied. "And the officer at the police station was a little too helpful in my opinion."

"How could a police officer be too helpful?" came Frank's puzzled response.

"It didn't faze him a bit to give me access to any phone and credit card records for one thing," I told him. "And second, he practically begged me to go out with him."

I could almost imagine Frank's frown as he said, "I hope you told him no."

"Of course I did," I said. "The guy was kind of creepy anyway."

"So where are you now?" Frank asked changing the subject.

"I'm at Bella's apartment looking around. I already went by Jacob's place, but I didn't find anything there. I was hoping to find a clue or something here, but it's not looking too good right now," I replied.

"How was your day?" I asked as I opened the door to the refrigerator. "Did you find out anything about the murder?"

I noticed that her refrigerator was full of ingredients for dishes that she probably hadn't gotten around to making yet. Some of the food was already beginning to go bad on her.

"Joe and I didn't even make it over to the lab until a little before lunch," Frank responded. "This guy, James, trained us on some of the things we'll be doing before we went to lunch with everyone else."

"Did you guys have a chance to talk to anyone there today?" I asked as I moved into Bella's bedroom.

"We talked to a few people at lunch today, but they couldn't really pinpoint anyone that might be a suspect in Jane's murder," Frank told me. "Pretty much all we learned was that nobody liked Jane."

"So everyone is a suspect," I concluded.

"Right now, yes," Frank confirmed. "I'm hoping that tomorrow Joe and I will have more time to really talk to people and find out something that could lead to a clue. The only thing I've got right now is that James went off somewhere for about thirty minutes today. I don't know where exactly he went, but he was acting pretty suspicious."

"Are you talking about the James that's in charge of your training?" I asked.

"One and the same," Frank answered. "Find anything in Bella's apartment?"

I was about to reply when I heard a quite click of Bella's apartment door opening. I hung up the phone and looked around for a place to hide. I didn't know who might be coming in to her apartment, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be found.

I saw her closet and quietly opened the door. The closet was tiny and not even full of clothes, which surprised me. I didn't have much time to contemplate this fact because I could hear footsteps coming closer to the bedroom. I ducked into the closet and quietly closed the door.

I couldn't see anything in the darkness of the closet, but I could tell when the mystery person came into the bedroom. I then froze and felt myself stop breathing as the footsteps came toward the closet where I was hidden.

The door to the closet was yanked open and I stared into the dark eyes of someone I had never seen before.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N I once again do not own any of these characters. I just enjoy imagining how they would react in different situations and putting that into words. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

**Nancy's POV**

The stranger before me was a tall and well-built man in his mid-thirties. He had dark hair that framed a face that was laced with suspicion.

"Who are you?" he growled.

"My name is Nancy Drew," I replied. "Who are you?" I countered.

The man ignored my question completely as he grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the closet I had been hiding in.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as he dragged me back into the living room where he shoved me unceremoniously onto the sofa.

"I was returning some clothes I had borrowed from Bella," I lied quickly.

The man's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and I knew that he probably didn't believe me.

"How did you get inside?" he questioned.

"I had a key," I answered.

"Did Bella give you the key?" he asked.

"I... uh... yes," I got out, mentally cringing at how that probably sounded.

"No, she didn't," he responded gruffly. "Don't bother trying to lie to me because I can smell one a mile away."

"Who are you anyway?" I tried again.

Before the man could reply, the front door burst open behind him. Before he had the chance to turn around to face the intruder, he was tackled to the floor by Joe. Frank hurried over to me and gently grabbed my arms and looked me over as if inspecting for any damage.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I replied looking into his concerned eyes. "I honestly didn't expect to see you here."

"When you hung up unexpectedly during our conversation, I got a little worried," Frank explained. "Joe and I decided that it might be nothing but we would drive over here just to make sure everything was okay. We heard you two in here and went for the surprise attack."

"Thank you," I told him.

By this time Joe had the mystery man held down without too much of a fight. Frank took one last look at me before he walked over to Joe and the other guy.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked with anger portrayed in his voice.

The man looked over at all three of us before he decided to answer. "My name is Demetri Costa. I was looking for Isabella Swan."

"Why were you looking for her?" I asked.

Demetri gave all of us another glance as if deciding whether or not he could trust us. "Charlie Swan hired me."

"Bella's father?" I asked.

"Yes," Demetri answered. "We've known each other a long time. When he hadn't been in touch with Bella for over a week, he got worried and called me."

"I don't understand," Frank said with a puzzled look. "Bella's only been missing for a couple of days now."

"Well, it's possible that she was busy or just didn't get around to calling him as often as she normally does," Demetri replied. "All I know is that I'm going to do my best to find her."

"Joe, you can let him go," I said.

Joe released Demetri out of his grasp and moved a few steps away.

"Who are you guys anyway?" Demetri asked.

"I'm Frank Hardy and this is my brother, Joe," Frank introduced. "You've already met Nancy."

"So, are any of you going to tell me why you're here in Bella's apartment?" Demetri asked.

"Her boyfriend, Edward, hired me to come look into her disappearance," I told him.

"Edward Cullen?" he asked.

"You know him?" Joe questioned.

Demetri shook his head, "No, I've never met him. Charlie told me that Bella was dating a guy named Edward Cullen. Charlie's never met the guy, so he wanted me to check him out while I was in the area. How long has Bella been missing?"

"They caught her on camera at her company running out of a back door with another man, Jacob Black," I told him. "This occurred two nights ago. No one has seen her since."

"Do you any of you guys have leads?" Demetri asked looking around at all of us.

"Nothing really," I admitted with a shrug. "I dropped by Jacob's house and checked it out, but there was nothing there to go on."

"What about motels around here? Have you checked out any of them?" Demetri questioned.

I shook my head as my phone rang. I walked a few steps away from them into the kitchen to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Is this Nancy Drew?" came the voice over the phone.

"Yes, this is she," I answered.

"I was calling for Officer Turner to inform you that we got a hit on Bella Swan's credit card," the man responded.

"Where was the purchase made?" I inquired.

"It was at the Blue Ribbon Motel," the man answered.

"Is Officer Turner already headed over there?" I asked.

"He won't be there for at least a few hours due to another investigation that he's currently working on."

"Okay, thanks for the tip," I said before hanging up.

I walked back into the living room where everyone's head turned to look at me.

"What's going on?" Frank asked.

"Bella's credit card was used to pay for a room at the Blue Ribbon Hotel. I figure we can head over there and see if we can find out what's really going on around here," I told them.

All of us left her apartment after locking it back up and drove over to the motel where the charge was made. We got out of the cars and grouped together near the front of the motel.

"We need to find out which room Bella's in," Frank said.

"What if Jacob's in there with her?" I asked.

"We'll just find out the room number and then watch for them to leave," Demetri said. "After all, they'll have to leave at some point to get food. I doubt a place like this really has room service."

I grimaced as I looked toward the motel. The place looked like a dive that was probably infested with all kinds of nasty diseases.

"I'll go and see if I can find out the room number," I decided.

Frank acted as if he wanted to come in there with me, but didn't pursue it after I gave him a look. I wasn't about to be coddled.

I left the boys coming up with unknown strategies and walked inside the motel. The inside might have actually been worse than the exterior. The blue paint on the walls had peeled off so much that you could barely tell what color it should be. The carpet on the floor contained huge holes in it along the way to a tiny desk in the centre of the room.

An elderly lady was behind the desk smoking a cigarette. I found this ironic since she was also hooked up to an oxygen tank.

She looked at me before showing a wide grin with several missing teeth. "Would you like a room for the evening?"

I smiled pleasantly. "Do you have many rooms available?" I asked.

"Oh yes, there happens to only be one other room occupied for the evening," she told me. "I can make sure you're far away from the young couple."

"Which room is this young couple in?" I asked her innocently. "I would really hate for them to disturb my sleep later tonight."

"They're in room 112, but I can put you in room 223," she told me. "That way you'll not only be on the other side of the building, but you'll also be on the top floor. You can have your own little midnight snack without anyone bothering you," she replied with a wink.

I was starting to be nauseated at the idea of anything like that happening in a run-down place like this.

"Well, I'm going to head out for some dinner, but I'll probably come back to get that room you offered," I said as I backed out of the entrance.

After escaping the lobby, I walked over to the guys.

"Did you find out what room they're in?" Frank asked.

"Room 112," I said exhaling heavily.

I watched as Demetri and Joe quickly got into their vehicles and drove around the side of the motel to park out of sight from the room where Bella and Jacob were staying.

"You seem flustered," Frank observed quietly as we walked toward my car.

"That noticeable?" I asked frowning.

"What happened in there?" he asked.

"Let's just say that the old woman working behind the desk in there told me I could have my own 'midnight snack' in one of the rooms," I stated.

"Huh?" Frank asked confused.

"You really don't want to know," I replied with a shake of my head.

Suddenly, Frank's eyes widened with the realization of what I was talking about. By this time we had already reached my car and I moved to open the door and get in.

Frank was standing right beside me and leaned down to softly speak in my ear. "A midnight snack like that might be pretty tasty in a very different environment."

I looked up into his eyes, which were sparkling with mirth over the whole thing before he gave me a wink and walked over to the passenger side of the car. We both finally got into the car and I drove around toward the back of the motel.

I found a shaded spot underneath some trees that would provide a little cover for us as we watched the room in question. I wasn't sure how long we would be here, so I settled back in the car and got comfortable.

Soon, darkness settled over us. I glanced at my phone to see what time it was and saw that it was nearing eight in the evening. Even though Frank and I were sitting together in the car, we had both been quiet for the past few hours. The only noises that came from us were from shifting in our seats to get more comfortable. It always amazes me how many people out there think detective work is exciting. Granted, there are times when you'll definitely have your adrenaline pumping through your veins, but mostly the work is just like today. A whole bunch of phone calls, going through paperwork, and sitting in a car for hours on end waiting on something that may or may not happen.

"Look, the door's opening," Frank pointed out to me quietly.

I leaned over toward the passenger seat where he was sitting to get a better view of the room. I could just barely make out the door opening in the darkness. I held my breath to see who came out of the room.

I watched as a tall male exited the room and closed the door behind him. It was hard to see his features in the darkness, but I was pretty sure this was Jacob Black.

"We need to see if Bella's in the room," I said.

"I'll grab Joe and we'll follow Jacob," Frank replied. "If it looks like he's headed back too early, I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something to delay him."

"Okay, be careful," I told him. "Don't let Joe do anything too risky."

Frank smiled at me before promising, "Don't worry, I'll keep him in check."

Frank quietly got out of the car and tapped on the window beside where Joe was sitting a few yards away. I watched as Joe got out of the car and the two of them walked off trailing behind Jacob at a reasonable distance to keep from being noticed too easily.

Once Jacob was out of sight, I stepped out of my car and started making my way toward the room where we thought Bella was in hiding. Demetri followed along beside me with his eyes glancing all around. I was pretty sure that Demetri might have a trace of paranoia to his personality, but I suppose that doesn't really hinder a guy who tracks down people for a living.

When we reached the door to the room, I looked over to Demetri with questioning eyes. I wasn't sure how we should approach this situation.

"Do you trust me?" he asked softly.

I wasn't really sure that I did, but I decided that I would go along with whatever he had planned for the time being. He shuffled me back a few steps so that I was now standing behind him. After another look around, he kicked in the door.


	10. Chapter 10

AN Sorry that it once again took me a little longer to update the story. I would love to say I had a good reason, but I really don't. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I promise to try my best to do better about getting this updated every week.

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

**Bella POV**

I was bored out of my mind in this motel room. Jacob refused to let me leave the room for anything. His reasoning was that there could be someone watching the room and waiting to have a clear shot at one of us. As much as I trusted his judgment in all of this, I was going stir-crazy.

Since we still have to eat, Jacob would leave the room a couple times a day to grab us food from a nearby diner. I'm sure we would have been stuck eating room service if the place offered it. At least I could get a decent meal this way.

Earlier today when Jacob left to grab us some lunch, I decided to help out by running down to the front desk and paying for the room. I was pleased that I managed to pay for another night on my credit card and get back to the room without Jacob or anyone else knowing about it.

Of course, I didn't realize how upset he would be about me doing such a simple thing. It turned out that he had stopped by to pay for another night on his way back with our lunch only to find out that I had already paid for it. I've never seen Jacob so mad before. I wasn't afraid of him doing any physical harm, but I still cowered on one corner of the bed as he yelled at me for going out by myself and using my credit card.

After he calmed down, we settled down to our lunch on the bed as we watched a movie. For the rest of the day, Jacob kept me in his sight. I wasn't sure what he was expecting, all I knew was that I needed to get out of this room. It was getting claustrophobic being practically locked up in here. I just wanted to get out of the room and take a little short walk around the block or something.

I knew I wouldn't be able to sneak out any time soon because Jacob was being too careful in watching me. He even waited until it was dark before he went out to get us some dinner from the diner. I guess he finally got hungry enough that he wasn't going to sit and watch me any longer.

I watched him go out the door. He never said anything else to me, but he did give me a glare that I could tell meant that he better find me in the same spot when he gets back with food for both of us. As much as I wanted to get up and leave the room just to get some fresh air, I didn't want to make Jacob any angrier than he already was with me. Knowing him, I might end up tied to the bed in order to keep me in the room.

With a sigh as the door closed behind him, I settled back onto the bed and used the remote for the television to change the channels hoping to find something worth watching.

I gave up on the television after five minutes and threw the remote onto a nearby table. If only I had a good book to read in order to kill some time.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I got off the bed and headed over to the door thinking that Jake must have forgotten something.

"Did you forget your wallet, Jake?" I asked as I reached to open up the door.

As soon as I had opened the door a crack, it was flung back with such force that I was knocked backward against the wall. I looked up with fear in my eyes as an unrecognizable man stood over me.

"Who are you?" I asked hearing the slight quiver in my voice.

The man didn't respond to my question. He flung a piece of cloth over my head and grabbed me from behind in order to direct me out the door. I didn't know what he planned to do with me, but I really hoped that Jake was okay.

I was ushered out of the room by the man. I was clumsy on a good day, so with my eyesight impaired by the cloth over my head, I was stumbling every other step it seemed. I don't think we walked too far away from the room before I was roughly shoved into the backseat of a car. I tried not to panic as the car pealed away from the motel, but it was difficult considering I didn't know who grabbed me or where we were going.

I tried to pay attention to all of the turns the vehicle was making on the road, but there were too many for me to keep track accurately. After what might have been the twentieth change in direction, I gave up and settled back in the seat waiting until we arrived to whatever location we were headed toward.

It could have been fifteen minutes or even an hour later, I felt the car doing a slow turn. It finally seemed as if we had left the highway and were perhaps venturing up a driveway. Even though I was scared of what was about to befall me, I was at least looking forward to hopefully getting this stupid cloth taken off my head so that I would be able to see again.

The car finally slowed to a stop and the engine was turned off. The door to my side was opened and a large hand grabbed my arm firmly to help me out of the car.

"Do you think you can take this thing off my head now?" I asked irritated.

"Soon," the man murmured to me.

I was led up some steps that must have led to the front door of wherever we were located. I felt myself walk over the threshold inside the building.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" an angry voice asked.

I felt myself hold my breath because I knew that voice. That was the one person who could bring a smile to my face no matter what the circumstances might be. The only problem was that I didn't understand how he could be here with my kidnapper.

Before I had time to ponder my thoughts, the veil was lifted from my face. I blinked a few times to allow my eyes to readjust to the lighting inside what I now recognized as a house I had frequently visited.

"Bella?"

I looked up and met the startling green eyes of the love of my life, Edward Cullen. I saw that he was standing a distance away but he quickly closed that gap.

Edward walked right up to me and cupped my face in his hands. Looking deeply into my eyes, he asked softly, "Are you okay? Were you hurt at all?"

"I'm okay now," I told him although I saw his eyes give me a once over checking to see if there was any visual damage showing.

Edward looked up and over my shoulder to glare at the man beside me. "Who are you and what on earth were you doing handling my Bella like this?"

I saw Edward's gaze shift a bit before he said, "And I expected better out of you, Nancy."

I made a move to turn my head and Edward relinquished his tender hold on my face. I could finally see that there was actually two people with me.

"Not that I'm not grateful for you bringing me here," I began, "but did you have to do it like that? You had me thinking of all kinds of scenarios."

I watched the girl Edward had referred to as Nancy grimace. "I didn't really know that's what Demetri had planned. I'm sorry about all the cloak and dagger stuff, but this guy is a bit on the paranoid side."

"A bit?" I asked sceptically.

Demetri held out his hand to Edward. "Nice to meet you, Edward. I'm Demetri."

Edward ignored the proffered hand. "I think you need to leave."

"Edward, what's going on?" asked Carlisle who entered the foyer where we were all still gathered.

Carlisle took in the group of us standing there and paused before a wide grin graced his features. "Bella, I'm so glad to see you safe and sound. We were all so worried."

"This man," Edward said jerking his finger toward Demetri, "brought Bella inside with a bag over her head."

Carlisle's gaze met Demetri's before asking, "And who might you be?"

"I'm Demetri. Bella's father hired me to find her."

I gasped at that information. "Charlie sent you? He must be so worried."

"He doesn't know what's going on here, so you might want to wait and call him tomorrow," Demetri suggested.

I nodded mutely as Edward wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.

"Why don't we all have a seat in the living room and discuss everything that's happened?" Carlisle suggested.

"I'm just going to head back since no one needs my services any longer," Demetri stated as he backed away toward the front door.

"Thank you for bringing Bella back to us," Carlisle told him, "even if your methods were a little unorthodox."

As Demetri opened up the front door to leave, I breathed out another sigh of relief at the sight I saw. Jacob was on the front steps along with two other men I had never seen before. Even though I had already realized that Jake wasn't in any danger, it was still a welcome relief to see him standing here unharmed.

Jacob met my gaze and smiled at me, "Bella, I'm glad you're okay. I wasn't sure if I could trust these two jerks behind me."

"How did you end up here with them?" I asked.

"Bella, let's go and have a seat so you'll be comfortable while listening to everyone's rendition of what's been going on," Edward said softly in my ear.

I nodded and allowed him to lead me into the living room where Carlisle and Esme were already seated on one of the love seats. Edward pulled me down beside him on the sofa where Jacob chose to sit on the other side of me. I saw a look pass between the two of them and sighed quietly. They were always going to be jealous of each other.

The last three people to enter the room were individuals that I didn't know. The girl seemed to be around my age with reddish hair and chose a chair across from Carlisle and Esme. One of the guys with darker hair sat in the remaining chair next to her while the other one with blonde hair leaned back against a nearby wall where he could see everyone in the room easily.

Carlisle began everything by saying, "We would all like to hear your version of the events that took place the night Jane Aswad was murdered."

Jacob and I took turns explaining everything that we witnessed. Everyone was great in not interrupting as we told the story of that night. I could tell that it upset Edward because every so often he would grip my hand tightly based on something that I said. After we finished leading up to this evening, the questions began.

"So you said this guy's name is Felix?" the blonde asked. I learned that his name was Joe.

Jacob nodded, "Yeah, I've seen him around the company. He supposedly does private security work."

"Who does he work for?" Frank asked.

Jacob ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure who he works for exactly. All I can really tell you is that it has to be somebody in the company that makes a pretty penny because he definitely doesn't work cheap."

"Would you be able to narrow it down any?" Carlisle asked.

"Now this is purely guesswork," Jacob began, "but I would say it has to be someone your level or higher. Since you're the plant manager, you would know all of the people who are higher ranked better than I would."

"I'm guessing that's why you didn't come to me first?" Carlisle asked.

Jacob shrugged. "I had Bella with me and didn't know who to trust. I wasn't going to risk her safety."

"Thank you for protecting her," Edward suddenly said.

I saw that they were staring at each other with similar expressions on their faces.

"You know as well as I do that I would do anything for Bella," Jacob said earnestly.

I shifted because they were beginning to make me a little uncomfortable with everyone else in the room to hear their little display.

"So, we probably need to check out everyone that could have the means to fund someone like Felix," Nancy supplied.

I smiled gratefully at her discerning my discomfort and changing the subject.

"Jacob, I would prefer if you and Bella stay here until this is all cleared up," Carlisle said. "I don't want the two of you to have to go out in public and be seen by anyone that might do harm to you."

"Okay," Jacob said.

"But what about work?" I asked.

"Honestly Bella, right now you're not going to be able to come in because you're needed for questioning by the police," Carlisle responded.

I sighed and hung my head at the seriousness of the situation I was in. I couldn't really fathom the idea of being wanted by the police for questioning on a murder that I didn't commit.

"Will we be alone here?" I asked.

"No, I'll be here with you while everyone's at work," Nancy replied.

"At least they'll be company," I grumbled quietly.

We finished discussing a few things including how Jacob came to end up here with Frank and Joe. I found out from them that Frank and Joe were following Jacob to the diner. When Jacob returned and found the door wide open and me missing, they came up and told him exactly what had happened. I could tell based on how Jake told the story that he didn't trust them, but because he saw that I was gone, he didn't know what other option he had other than allowing them to lead him here. He was surprised and happy to find out that they hadn't lied to him about my whereabouts.

Esme brought all of us mugs of hot chocolate which I accepted gratefully. I took a sip of the warm liquid and finally relaxed against Edward's side allowing his warmth to remove all the worries I had built up inside me for the time being. I knew there was still a long road ahead to clearing my name, but at least I wasn't so isolated from the people I love anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N So this chapter is a little shorter than the rest of them. As usual, I don't own any of the characters. I just have fun with them. Hope you enjoy and leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

**Nancy's POV**

I watched from my vantage point of the chair as Bella leaned into Edward with her hot chocolate held between her hands. The love that those two had for each other shone in their eyes and made me feel slightly envious of them.

Even when Ned and I were a couple, I don't think there was ever a time that I could say we looked at each other with nothing but adoration shining through. A look that could block out a room full of people. I came to the realization that I had never really known true love.

That thought brought me to such awareness that I suddenly felt the urge to leave the room. I quietly stood up from my seat and walked out of the room. I looked around for a good place to hide and decided to step out the back door onto the patio. I needed to be away from that kind of outpouring of affection. It brought too many things to mind about my life that I wasn't sure I was ready to face.

I took a sip of my own hot chocolate and looked out onto the back yard. Like everything else with the Cullen house, the back yard was perfectly kept. I couldn't tell as much about it in the darkness of night, but it was easy enough to distinguish the blooming flowers and well groomed shrubbery and grass.

I let my mind drift over the events of the day as I looked up at the twinkling stars. There was something about this murder that was bugging me, but I couldn't decipher what it was. Not to mention that I still had some doubts about Demetri.

My time alone was interrupted by a presence behind me. I turned to see who had come out here with me and found Frank's eyes watching me from the doorway.

"I thought I might find you out here," he spoke.

"I needed to get away," I replied as I turned to look out upon the yard once again.

Frank walked the few steps to stand next to me. I could tell out of the corner of my eye that he was looking out upon the grounds just like me; although, I knew that Frank must have something on his mind. He wasn't the type to seek me out without something on his mind.

"What are you thinking?" I finally asked turning toward him.

He smiled as he looked down at me. "I was glad to be proven wrong by you. Not only about Edward's love for Bella, but also about Bella's innocence. There's no way she would ever hurt a fly."

I smiled at his response. "I just don't understand. There's something about this mystery that seems too easy. I mean we find Bella and Jacob with a fair bit of ease and they point us in the direction of the very person who murdered Jane. It just doesn't normally happen like this."

I was glad to finally get my thoughts off my chest. They were beginning to consume me.

"I know what you mean," Frank agreed with a sigh. "Regardless, we still need to go and check out Felix tomorrow."

"You guys have to go to work," I reminded him.

"I haven't forgotten," Frank replied with a smile. "I was thinking that you and I can head over to Felix's place tomorrow after work while Joe babysits Bella and Jacob."

"Sounds like a plan," I told him smiling.

Frank smiled back before asking, "So with everything going on, how are things?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We haven't exactly had much of a chance to catch up with each other since we got here," Frank explained. "I wanted to know what you were doing. How's Ned?"

I looked up at him before turning my head down and away from his gaze. "I'm not really doing anything right now."

"And Ned?" Frank pressed.

"We broke up a while back," I said softly.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Frank responded.

I finally looked back up at him. "It's just that I was so sure of our relationship for the longest time. When he finally told me that I should find a real job instead of being a detective, things got ugly. Even though our relationship was declining, I was oblivious to it all. I continued to do what I love and dismissed Ned's rants about it. Finally, everything came to a head and Ned walked away for good. This is the first case I've taken since then."

"Why did you decide to take this case after all this time?" Frank asked.

"I just heard Edward's voice on the phone and it made me feel something," I told Frank honestly. "I had quit believing in love and relationships until I heard Edward plead for me to help him find Bella. That obvious love that he had for her gave me the resolve to jump in head first and do whatever I could do to find her again."

"I guess that's why you were so adamant that she was innocent all along," Frank supplied.

I nodded. "That definitely did play a part in it."

Frank stepped even closer so that our bodies were almost touching. I watched as he placed a hand on my cheek gently.

"You know, Nan, love really does exist for people. You should open your eyes and find it," Frank said softly.

Frank leaned over to lightly kiss my forehead before leaving me by myself with my thoughts.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N Here's the next chapter. I'm hoping to get another one up before Memorial Day weekend, but we'll just have to see since I'll be packing to go out of town. As always, all characters belong to their respective owners, which does not include myself. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

**Frank's POV**

I had a fitful night of sleep and was glad when the sun finally came up. It gave me an excuse to get up and move around the house without someone trying to ask if there was something wrong with me.

All I could think about was my short time standing outside with Nancy last night. I'm not sure when the actual realization came to me, but I finally knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I cared deeply for her. More so than was appropriate for us just being friends. I wanted to tell her last night about my feelings, but there were too many things that seemed to be in the way.

I wasn't sure at first why she left the living room where everyone was gathered in order to head off by herself to the back patio. She claimed that she was second guessing some of the events that have taken place with the case, but I still got the impression that there was more to it than that. Instead of questioning her further on the subject, I asked about Ned. I guess that was both a good and bad thing to do. Good, because I found out that her and Ned are no longer involved and bad since it seemed to bring back painful memories to her.

There was a moment I was standing so close to her that I could feel the body heat radiating off of her. I probably should have told her about the feelings I had for her, but I chickened out and just left her with some parting words that would probably be too vague to really hint at anything.

I stood up from the bed and stretched. I couldn't believe I had chickened out of something so simple as telling Nancy that I felt something for her. As I trudged toward the shower, I realized that my feelings for her were actually more pronounced than just simply "feeling" something for her.

I could honestly say that I've probably been in love with her since before Callie and I even broke up. It might have even been an underlying cause of the break in our relationship that Callie had seen before I ever realized what was really going on. She would see the number of cases that Joe and I went on that Nancy would inevitably become a part of. When I came home after the case was solved, I always raved about how great Nancy was. I never even stopped to think about how that must have looked to Callie.

It's no wonder that she eventually got fed up with me. I would have done the same thing if I had been in her situation. At least, I now have the chance to put my new found knowledge to good use. I was going to do my best in gauging how Nancy felt about me. If the feelings seem to be mutual, then I hope we might be able to pursue a relationship with each other.

After showering, I quickly got dressed for my day at work and headed downstairs. I had checked the clock in my room before leaving and saw that it was still pretty early in the morning, so I didn't expect anyone to be awake.

By the time I got downstairs, I could vaguely smell bacon in the air. I walked toward the kitchen to see who was awake only to find Nancy standing in front of the stove cooking breakfast.

"Good morning, you're up early," I commented.

Nancy looked up and smiled at me. "I had a little trouble sleeping, so I came down here as early as I thought would be reasonable."

"That smells wonderful," I complimented as I stepped up right beside her. "Is there anything I can help with?"

I could tell that Nancy noticed how close I was to her but since she didn't say anything to discourage it, I decided that I would try to maintain a close proximity whenever possible.

"The eggs and bacon are finished," Nancy replied. "If you could just hand me a couple plates, I'll put everyone on them and we can eat together."

I opened up a few cabinets until I found the one that contained the plates. I grabbed two plates and handed them to Nancy, who immediately began putting food on both plates. While she was doing that, I grabbed two glasses out of another cabinet and walked over to the fridge where I pulled out some juice and poured us each a glass full.

Nancy carried our plates full of food while I carried the glasses over to a counter in the kitchen that had a couple barstools on the opposite side. We sat down next to each other and quietly observed each other before turning toward the food in front of us.

I hated to make myself look like a pig in front of Nancy because I truly did care about her opinion, but it was hard to keep myself from shovelling food in my mouth. I might have actually moaned at one point because of how good it all was.

Neither of us spoke while we ate. We just seemed to be content with each other's company. When I finished eating, I took my plate and glass to the sink and began washing all of the dirty dishes.

"You don't have to do that," Nancy said as she came up behind me. "I can wash them since you have to be at work."

"I don't have to be there for another hour," I pointed out to her. "Besides, we all know that Joe will be asleep for another thirty minutes."

"Still, I can wash everything," Nancy argued.

"You did the cooking, so I'll do the cleaning," I told her.

Nancy huffed and crossed her arms over her chest in irritation. I smiled to myself because I knew she has always been stubborn. I continued washing everything and just handed the dishes to Nancy so she could dry them.

"So, what's your plan for the day?" I asked her once we finished cleaning up the kitchen.

Nancy leaned back against the counter behind her and pondered for a moment.

"Well, since I have to be here all day, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to really do," Nancy finally said. "I think it's mostly going to be babysitting. Although, I suppose I should really make a call to the police station and see if they have any ballistics results to determine what make and model of gun was used to kill Jane.

"You're planning on calling instead of going down there?" I asked. That was a bit out of character for Nancy. She was usually one who liked to get involved face-to-face.

Nancy grimaced. She pointed to herself, "Babysitting remember?"

"Right," I replied.

"Besides," Nancy began shrugging, "I'd really rather not deal with Officer Turner any more than I can help."

I perked up at that. I hadn't noticed anything about the guy when I met him the first time. Of course, Nancy's had more interaction with him than I've had.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

"I want to say he's creepy, but I suppose that isn't the right thing to say about a police office," Nancy spoke. "He just makes me uncomfortable."

I walked right up to her so that we were almost touching. "Has he done anything to you?" I asked concerned.

Nancy shook her head. "He asked me to go out with him on a date sometime. Otherwise, he hasn't really done anything _wrong_. He's just different and it makes me a little uneasy around him."

Jealousy flared up in me as I heard her talk about him asking her out on a date. I wanted to be the only one to go out with Nancy. She must have noticed something in my eyes because her features softened.

"Frank, just relax," she soothed. "I have no interest whatsoever in him and plan to avoid him as much as possible."

I sighed and relaxed as she ran her hand up and down my forearm in a soothing gesture. "Well, I guess I'm glad that you're simply making a phone call down there instead of an actual trip."

"That's what I thought," she replied smirking up at me playfully.

That playful nature of hers made me want to lean down and kiss her. It took everything I had in me to keep myself from doing just that. I stepped away from her just as Joe came barging into the kitchen wearing some tattered shorts and shirt with his hair sticking up everywhere. Clearly, he had just gotten out of bed.

"Hey, anything good for breakfast?" Joe asked yawning widely.

I silently handed him a bowl and a box of cereal I found nearby and walked out of the kitchen. I wasn't sure that I wanted anything to happen at that moment between Nancy and myself because I was unsure of how she felt for me, but I still resented Joe intruding on what could have been a moment between us.

I only caught a brief glance of Nancy before it was time for us to leave for work. She had found time to pack Joe and I lunch and handed us each a sack with it in there. I didn't check to see what it was wanting to wait and be surprised later. I knew that it was probably something good though because Nan's always been a good cook.

I drove us both to work and we entered the lab right on time. We barely had five minutes to get our stuff put away and settled before James came over to us.

"Hey, I'm going to take Joe out back with me to sample some raw material," James told me as he gestured toward Joe, who was standing next to me. "It's usually easier to sample with only one person hanging around, so while we're doing that, you can use the density meter for anyone who needs it and get the dirty glassware washed."

"Sure," I replied.

I watched James lead Joe out the door where they would soon be sampling some sort of raw material. Once they were gone, I turned and saw several people pulling out glassware and placing it at the end of their benches next to empty containers that were conveniently labeled "dirty glassware".

I walked over to Alice's bench because she seemed to have the largest amount of flasks and beakers.

"Do you need any help with these?" I asked.

"Oh yes!" she said excitedly. "All of that stuff that I have by the sink is in water, so you can just pour it down the drain and rinse it."

I started pulling off the labels and poured everything out into the sink and rinsing it in hot water before placing it in the container. I was starting to make a dent in her stuff when I noticed that she wasn't helping because she was still pulling out glassware from her cabinet.

"How long have you been keeping all of this?" I asked in shock.

Alice looked up at me and giggled. "Oh, this is only from the past couple of days. I didn't have any time yesterday to dump it, so I'm doing it this morning."

I filled up the first container of glassware and carried it over to the dishwasher that I had noticed yesterday during the very brief tour James had given us. Luckily for me, even though the dishwasher was a commercial grade made for laboratories, it was still fundamentally a dishwasher like you would own in your home. I filled it up with as many items as I could get to fit in there without breaking anything. I opened a few nearby cabinets before I found the special detergent that is used in it and poured some in. I pushed the start button and walked back over to Alice's bench ready for more to wash.

After going by everyone's bench and claiming all the dirty glassware, I had managed to fill up all of the dishwashers. They were all currently running and I had just put the last container that still held a few pieces that wouldn't fit when James and Joe returned with a crate that contained several small, plastic containers that I guessed were filled with whatever raw material they had just been working with.

The day continued on with both Joe and I keeping busy doing whatever James needed us to do at the time. I was thankful when lunch rolled around because I was needing a break from this hectic job.

Joe and I grabbed our lunches and walked into the break room. I immediately saw the table full of Edward and Bella's friends wave us over, so we walked over to their table and grabbed the two empty chairs.

"So, how are you liking the job?" Rosalie asked.

"It's cool," Joe said. "Although, I can't believe how much stuff gets rejected around here."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

Joe looked over at me. "When I went out back to sample with James, we walked by this area where they keep all the rejected products. It's full of of batches that were made as well as raw material."

"That's what happens when it's tested and doesn't meet the specifications," Jasper told us.

"That must cost the company a lot of money," I observed.

"It depends on what it is," Jasper continued. "Some of our products are more costly than others depending on the raw materials that go in them. It's practically a guarantee that if it's a controlled drug, the company will lose a lot of money off of a bad batch."

"I saw a lot of controlled stuff out there," Joe told us. "They had all of it marked with a different label."

"We've been rejecting a lot of raw material lately," Emmett said. "The raw material coming in hasn't been up to the purity levels we require."

"There's also been several of our controlled products that have been rejected because they haven't met the label claims we require to release it to the public," Alice told us.

"That's interesting," I observed considering how much money the company could really afford to lose without jeopardizing their business. I decided that I might ask Carlisle about it later tonight.

We finished lunch soon afterwards and Joe and I went back to work.

"Be on the lookout for James to make a sneaky escape out the back door," I told Joe quietly when we were back in the lab. "I want to make sure one of us follows him this time and see what he's really up to."

"Sure, I'll keep a lookout," Joe answered.

The afternoon seemed to pass by in almost a blur of activity. Joe and I were hustling about doing all kinds of little jobs that needed to be done. It was everything from the seemingly menial tasks of cleaning glassware and dumping product to actually doing specific gravity testing and minimum fills, which was the latest thing both of us were trained on.

Some lotion had been brought in for release testing and James brought us over to where ten additional samples had been pulled for minimum fill testing. Basically, we ended up having ten graduated cylinders lined up on the counter and poured each bottle of lotion into a different cylinder. After taking down the measurement of how much lotion was in each bottle, we go over to the computer and fill in that information into a validated spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is already set up to calculate the fill volume in a percentage based on the amounts we recorded.

Joe, of course, thought it was boring; but I enjoyed having a small part in some of the testing procedures done on the products the company markets. I had just finished taping everything into my very own lab notebook when I noticed that it nearing break time and James wasn't anywhere around.

I stood up from my chair and scanned the lab just barely catching a glimpse of him going out the back door. I started heading toward the door while looking around for Joe. I couldn't find Joe so I decided that I would just have to check this out by myself.

I reached the back door and used my badge to open it. Luckily, I wasn't too far behind James and I saw him quickly open and close another door that was off to the side of the hallway I had entered. I had never really ventured through much of this part of the building, so I wasn't sure what was behind the door James went into.

Knowing that it could be some sort of open area that would easily allow James to see me, I ventured cautiously toward the door trying not to make much noise. I was just about to reach for the handle on the door when I heard a moan. I jerked my hand away and stepped up even closer to practically put my ear against the door to hear further. I was hoping that James wasn't trying to attack someone; but if he was, I was going to stop him before he hurt whoever might be there with him.

"Oh James," a female's voice moaned out.

Okay, that didn't sound like someone in trouble to me. I stood there shifting my weight from one foot to another wondering what the hell was going on.

"Victoria, baby, you're so sexy," James said between heavy breathing.

I was beginning to get the picture of what was happening behind that closed door. I couldn't believe it took me that long to figure it out. God, I was naïve.

I quietly walked away as fast as I could to give them some privacy because I really couldn't entertain the thought of hearing anything else out of the two of them. With another slight shake of my head as I entered the now empty lab, I realized that at least now I knew why James was sneaking around on a daily basis. I'm a little surprised that I hadn't noticed Victoria doing the same thing, but then again, she works in the micro lab and they frequently head out that particular door to do air testing or something along the lines of that.

I entered the break room where I found Joe once again sitting with what seemed to be our signature group of people. I sat down and ran my hand through my hair.

"Rough day?" Alice asked.

"You could say that," I said exhaling loudly.

"So where did you go?" Joe asked. "I looked around for you, but you had disappeared."

I looked around the table quickly and figured it wouldn't really matter if they knew about James.

"I wanted to see where James kept disappearing to," I said.

Joe furrowed his brow. "What did you find out?"

I grimaced before continuing, "Turns out that James goes into some room with Victoria. They were enjoying themselves to say the least."

"James and Victoria?" Rosalie asked. "But he's supposed to be dating that girl that works in manufacturing, Bree."

"But you know that I've heard that Bree has been hanging out with Laurent a lot," Alice said.

"I thought Laurent was dating Victoria?" Jasper asked.

"Dude, James is awesome for hooking up with a different girl at work," Emmett said.

Rosalie smacked the back of Emmett's head and glared at him. I laughed because Emmett actually pouted a little.

"Wow, the drama that goes on in the workplace," Alice mused.

After our short break, the rest of the workday passed by quickly and I soon found myself back in the car with Joe on our way to the Cullen's house. I was excited to get home and tried my best not to let it show, but I'm pretty sure Joe picked up on it considering the sideways glances I got from him every so often before we arrived at the house.

As soon as I pulled up in front of the house, Joe got out of the car and Nancy sat down in the passenger seat with a grin on her face. I knew she was ready to get out of the house and work on this mystery. I turned around in the driveway and we headed off in the direction of the address we had for Felix. I was hoping that we would be able to find out something that would help us with the case once we got there.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N So thankfully the holiday is over because I'm tired from our trip. Here's the latest chapter; I hope you enjoy. I must give thanks for all gun related info to Andy, who at least seems to know all in that area from my perspective. I still own nothing.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Nancy POV**

As much as babysitting might sound terrible, I ended up enjoying the day for the most part. Of course, Edward ended up staying at home all day instead of going in to work, so there were plenty of spells during the day when he and Bella would escape to some remote part of the house. I didn't bother trying to find them because I knew they would both stay safely indoors and not go running off somewhere they shouldn't.

That left me with spending the day with Jacob. I might have been a bit apprehensive at first when it came down to spending all my time with someone I barely knew, but as the hours passes, I became more used to him and his personality. I could definitely see his outgoing personality affect me as the day went on. It was almost unthinkable to not smile or laugh at something he said.

Right after all of us had finished eating lunch together, Bella finally got up the nerve to call her dad. I could tell that she was nervous to talk with him since we had just found out that he hired someone to find her. I could just envision how well that conversation would go over. I left it up to her how much she revealed to her father about the case. Since he didn't live around here, no one really thought that it could do any harm to inform him of what we know. Bella, however, was still reluctant to explain to him about all of the trouble she was really in, which was something I could understand.

I looked on as a passive observer as Bella hesitantly dialed her father's number on the phone. Edward was standing by her side the entire time rubbing soothing circles on the small of her back.

"Hey dad," Bella said quietly into the phone when Charlie picked up.

I couldn't hear what Charlie was saying to Bella from my side, but I could imagine how worried he must have been over her whereabouts.

"I'm sorry dad," Bella spoke. "I didn't mean to make you worry."

I remembered that I still had a few reservations about Demetri and thought this would be a good time for us to find out a little bit more about him from Charlie. I found a notepad nearby with a pen next to it and began writing on it. I held it up for Bella to see after I finished writing the note, "Ask about Demetri."

"Hey dad, so how did you come to know Demetri?" Bella asked.

I watched as Bella frowned over her father's response. I was very interested to hear what Charlie was telling Bella over the phone. They continued talking about little things for a few more minutes before Bella finally said her goodbyes and hung up the phone.

"What did your dad say about Demetri?" I asked.

Bella frowned some more before answering, "Charlie doesn't even really know the guy. Demetri is apparently well-known for his detective skills, so Charlie called him up one day to hire him to find me."

"So he doesn't know anything about the guy?" I questioned surprised.

I had expected Charlie, of all people, to find out everything he could about a detective he was hiring to find his own daughter. The guy was a police chief after all.

"Nothing more than his name and where he works," Bella confirmed with a slight shake of her head.

"Well, I honestly expected to get a little more information than that," I replied.

"Surely, you don't think Demetri is a bad guy?" Edward asked.

"It's not that I think he's good or bad," I began. "I just think he's hiding something and I want to know what it is. For all I know, it could be something completely innocuous."

"So what are you planning to do now?" Jacob asked.

"There's not much I that can be done right now," I told him. "You and Bella really need to give statements to the police for the events that took place the night of the murder. Frank and I were going to head over to Felix's house after work to see if we can find any evidence."

"But we saw him kill Jane," Bella said.

"Even though you saw him commit the crime, it still helps to have some proof to back up your testimony," I told her.

It wasn't long after our conversation together that I ended up finding myself in the house without anything to do. Everyone else had retreated to other parts of the house leaving me alone in the living room. There was only so many times I could flip through all the channels on the television without finding anything worth watching.

I sighed as I looked up at the clock and realized that I still had another hour before Frank and Joe would be back from work. I stood up and decided that since it was a nice, although cloudy, day outside, I would take a little walk around the backyard that I had admired in the darkness last night.

As I made my way outside and began walking slowly around the grounds, I thought of another short conversation I had today with Officer Turner. I pondered his strange behaviour that he had over the phone when I talked to him.

I had originally called to see when Bella and Jake would be able to come into the station to provide their statements for the events that took place the night of the murder. When Officer Turner found out that it was me on the phone, he immediately tried to ask me out on a date again. I had to politely refuse him before telling him what I was really calling for. I had expected him to jump at the chance to get statements and want Bella and Jake to come in right away. Instead, he acted hesitant about them coming in and then claimed he had some pressing matters to attend to before hanging up on me.

I don't expect his work to revolve solely on this particular case, but it did make me wonder what required such urgency that he would push off getting statements from two people who witnessed the crime happen.

I took another turn around the grounds as I tried to relax and stop the questions that were running through my mind. Another leisurely stroll should allow enough time to pass that I could go back inside and not have to wait forever for the boys to get back.

The sky was growing darker and clouds were rolling in as I finished my final turn of the yard. I headed inside hoping that the boys would be back soon and I could finally get some investigating done. As I walked through the back door, I could hear Frank's voice coming from the kitchen. I headed for the kitchen to meet up with him. As soon as I entered the room, I saw Frank chatting with Edward while Joe was making a huge sandwich for himself.

Frank glanced over at my arrival and broke out into a wide grin. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"Whenever you are," I responded.

Frank ushered me out of the kitchen as Joe called a , "Be careful," out to us.

We were quickly in Frank's rental car as he drove us to the address I had found for Felix. It took about fifteen minutes to reach the house where Felix resides. Before getting out of the car, which Frank had parked several houses down, I took some time to scan the neighbourhood.

Felix occupied a home in a better kept neighbourhood than Jake. Instead of the homes that were in desperate need of repair, most of these houses looked fairly new with fresh coats of paint. The houses weren't overly large, but they were still homes that would require a person to have a fairly high paying job to occupy. That, in and of itself, made me wonder who Felix worked for. A typical security guard wouldn't make enough money to live in this kind of neighbourhood.

We got out of the car and quietly walked toward Felix's house when we saw that the neighbourhood was quiet and there wasn't a car in his driveway. We arrived at the front door and knocked. I didn't expect an answer, and there wasn't one.

"Anybody looking?" Frank asked quietly.

I glanced around again before replying, "It doesn't look like anybody's home in the entire neighbourhood."

Before I had even finished the sentence, Frank had his lock-picking set out and was working on the lock. The door swung open within seconds and we ventured in cautiously.

The front door opened up into a small foyer. I closed the door behind us and we split up to cover the entire house quicker. Even though Felix wasn't home right now, we couldn't be sure as to how long he might be away.

I watched as Frank went up the stairs that led to the second floor and most likely the bedroom. I walked straight ahead and found the kitchen. Everything was spotless in here. I would have thought that he never used the kitchen except I got curious and opened up the fridge to see what was in there. His fridge was fully stocked with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and meats that would be used to make some truly wonderful meals. It also looked like he spent extra money buying only organic and hormone-free food.

I closed the door to the fridge and wondered into the next room. It was clearly a formal dining room with an expensive wooden table that would seat up to eight people. There really wasn't anything of interest in this room, so I continued on.

I found the living room next. It was equipped with a very large television mounted on the wall. There was also an expensive stereo system and hundreds of movies. Once again, all of the furniture was plush and everything was well decorated. I definitely wondered where the money was coming from to be able to afford all of this.

I arrived back in the foyer and started to go upstairs to check on Frank when I noticed another door off to the side that I hadn't been in. I thought it might be a bathroom or office, so I decided to take a peak inside.

I opened the door and my eyes widened in surprise. I was standing in the man's office, but that wasn't what surprised me. It was the fact that an entire wall of his office was dedicated to a massive gun collection.

"Frank, can you come in here?" I called.

I heard footsteps on the stairs as Frank descended. I turned my head as he entered the room and stopped in his tracks.

"Wow," was all Frank uttered.

"Do you think one of these could be the murder weapon?" I asked as I stepped closer to the display.

"I think we all know the answer to that question Miss Drew," another voice spoke.

Frank and I turned quickly to see Felix standing before us holding a gun that was aimed quite steadily at us.

"Why don't you tell us which gun you used and how you killed Jane?" Frank asked taking a small step forward and shifting a little to his left to stand in front of me.

"I used the H and K USP Elite .45 ACP, and I would suggest you not move any more Mr. Hardy," Felix said calmly. "I know what you're trying to do and it won't work with me."

I looked around the room trying to find a weapon that could be used against Felix or at least a swift exit from the room. The only problem was that all the guns behind me were most likely unloaded. Even if they did have rounds in them, there was no way I'd be able to grab one and shoot Felix before he got at least one shot off. I wouldn't risk Frank's life like that.

The exit was going to be a problem too. The only doorway out was behind Felix. There was a large window that overlooked the street outside, but I doubt we could go crashing through the window without having some injuries. There again, we can't exactly outrun a bullet. I sighed as I realized our situation was not looking good.

"So you want to know how I killed Jane," Felix mused.

"Well, actually we already know how you killed Jane," Frank said. "There were a couple of witnesses, after all."

"I'm far more interested in who you're working for and why they wanted her dead in the first place," I said.

Felix sent us a silent stare and didn't say anything, not that I expected him to.

"You know the police are going to arrest you for the murder," Frank pointed out.

"No they won't," Felix responded.

"Why do you think you aren't going to be locked up when we all know you were the one who committed the crime?" I asked.

"Because I'll be out of the country by then," Felix said with his jaw clenched. "My boss has already arranged everything for me."

"How can you be so sure that he won't let you take the fall?" I continued to prod.

"Dr. V...," Felix began before several things happened at once.

The glass in the large window in the room shattered causing Frank to push me to the floor as he covered my body with his. Felix's eyes widened before I watched as a large blood stain seeped through his shirt. He stayed upright for a few seconds before staggering forward and landing on the floor in front of us.

Frank crept forward and checked his pulse. With a shake of his head, I knew that Felix was dead before he could reveal the identity of who he was working for.

"What now?" I asked as I crawled over to Frank.

"Let's get out of the house and call the police," Frank said.

"You think the gunman is still out there?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we should see if we can find any clues," Frank told me.

I crept over to the window to look out and see if there was anyone around that could have been the gunman. I coast seemed to be clear, but I knew that you can find rifles that allowed a person to be a mile away and still get a shot off.

After telling Frank that I couldn't see anyone, we both cautiously walked out of the house using a back door. Neither one of us wanted to end up being picked off by someone we couldn't even see coming. We came around to the front of the house without any incident.

"Should we split up to cover more area?" I asked.

Frank looked down at me with a frown, "No, I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to you if you were by yourself. We're going to stay together."

Even under these conditions, I smiled up at Frank for his thoughtfulness. Thinking of how much he cared for me warmed my insides.

"The best possible shot would have to come from this direction," Frank said pointing toward the left.

I nodded in affirmation and we started down the street in that direction. I was continuously looking around for a potential suspect or even a glint of a scope on a rifle. It was a bit disconcerting that we were out in the open and this suspect could hit us at any time.

We rounded the corner of the nearest block without seeing anything. I think both of us knew that whoever shot Felix was probably long gone, but we still stuck to our usual habits of checking everything out.

I was just about to turn around and head back to the car when Frank stopped me. He walked a few more feet down the street and picked up what looked to be a man's wallet.

"What's that?" I asked.

Frank opened it up and let out a loud breath in surprise. "This wallet belongs to Demetri.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N Another chapter we have. I really could have gotten this posted earlier, but I was having an internal debate as to where I wanted this chapter to cut off. I finally made a decision and here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy and leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Frank's POV**

It didn't take long for the police to show up at Felix's house. Instead of remaining inside, Nancy and I chose to stay outside in the front yard to wait.

I quickly recognized Officer Turner when he stepped out of the driver's side of one of the vehicles. I knew Nancy felt a little strange around him, but I haven't noticed anything unusual about the way he acted.

Before coming over to us, Officer Turner quickly gave orders to everyone around. He walked inside the house with a group of officers following him. I imagine he was going to not only witness the crime scene first hand, but also make sure they knew what areas of the house to scour for evidence. About ten minutes later, he finally came back outside and walked over to where we had been standing.

"So, I take it you two witnessed the murder?" he asked.

"We were talking to Felix when the glass in the window was shattered. Within seconds, Felix had died," Nancy told him.

"What were you talking to Felix about?" Officer Turner asked her.

"He had admitted to murdering Jane and we were trying to get him to tell us who he was working for," I replied.

Officer Turner's eyes turned to me with a hard stare. "Did he tell you who he might have been working for?"

"No," I answered with a shake of my head. "He was shot before he could tell us."

"What makes you think he was working for someone?" Officer Turner continued.

"It just doesn't feel right that someone like him would go out and murder someone," I told him. "Someone had to have been pulling his strings and that person killed him before he could crack."

"Uh huh," Officer Turner said dryly. "I think you've been reading too many mystery stories."

"I believe Frank's right," Nancy chimed in.

Officer Turner turned to her and gave her a wink. I clenched my fists and looked on in disbelief that he would even think to wink at her with me standing right beside her.

"We also found this wallet," I offered holding out Demetri's wallet.

"Officer Turner grabbed it and flipped it open to reveal the driver's license of Demetri.

"Hmm, where exactly did you find this?" he asked finally seeming interested in what we had to say.

"It was just around the corner," Nancy said pointing in the direction of where we had found it.

"Good work, Nancy," Officer Turner told her while completely ignoring me. "I'll definitely check this out."

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"If you want, you can come back with me to the station and tell me all of your theories," Officer Turner told her.

"Umm, no thanks," Nancy replied hesitantly looking quickly in my direction.

"Can you tell what type of gun was used?" I asked trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"It's too early without ballistic results to say for sure, but it looks like a Remington 700," Officer Turner answered. "Unless you two have anything else for me, I'm going to get another officer around to take your official statements."

Nancy and I both shook our heads and watched as he walked away.

"Can you believe that guy?" I asked incredulously.

"At least you haven't had to deal with him hitting on you all the time," Nancy replied grimacing.

It wasn't long before a female showed up and took our statements. After we had both recounted exactly what took place, we were finally allowed to go home. By now it was already dark and both of us were starving.

"You want to go somewhere out to eat?" I asked Nancy once we were seated in the car.

"Love to," Nancy replied. "I'm ravenous."

I contemplated taking her out somewhere by ourselves, but decided against it. After the events of the day, I would much rather not have a potential first date tonight. I figured that it would be better to invite everyone along, so I pulled out my phone and called Joe.

"Hey Frank," Joe answered after the second ring. "Did you guys find anything out at Felix's?"

"Well, it's a long story that ends up with Felix dead," I responded.

"What?" Joe questioned in surprise.

"The real reason I was calling was to see if any of you guys wanted to go out for dinner tonight," I told him.

"None of us have eaten yet because we were sort of waiting for you and Nancy to get back," Joe told me. "I think dinner sounds great because I'm starving and you need to tell me what happened over there."

"Any place in particular?" I asked.

"Let me see," Joe said.

I heard him in the background talking to somebody about restaurants, but I wasn't quite sure what exactly was being said.

"Okay, Edward suggested that we go to this place called The Leon's Den," Joe came back to say.

I got directions to the restaurant and then ended the call as I drove off in the right direction.

By the time we reached the place, it seemed like everyone had come out and was waiting for us. The large group that we were part of didn't just include Edward, Bella, Joe, and Jake. Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett were also standing outside waiting as we drove up and parked.

The Leon's Den was situated in a very large two story brick building. The sign outside was painted in blood-red lettering. It didn't really seem like a restaurant to me based on the exterior appearance.

We all walked inside together and were met with a hostess that was standing next to some stairs that were roped off with a large guy guarding that entrance.

"That's a dance club upstairs," Alice spoke sensing my confusion.

"We come here a lot on the weekends because you can have a great meal downstairs in the dining room and then go upstairs and dance the night away," Rosalie explained.

"Okay," I simply said.

I glanced around the interior of the restaurant as we were led to a large grouping of tables. The establishment was definitely trying to go for a more romantic feel with dimmed lighting and candles on each table. The walls had small, red lanterns evenly spaced that generated a red glow that wasn't overpowering. The tablecloths were black with a deep red overlay. I was surprised that it didn't feel like Valentine's Day gone bad with all the red, but surprisingly enough, everything was still very tastefully decorated.

We all gathered around the various chairs and sat down. Everyone except for Jake and Joe were sitting as couples around the table. The waitress quickly came around and took our drink orders before heading off again to give us a moment to peruse the menus.

"So what happened today?" Joe asked after our drinks had been delivered and everyone had placed their order.

Nancy and I gave him a quick recap of everything that went on today.

"But why would Demetri have anything to do with Felix's death?" Bella asked. "My dad hired him to find me when he thought I was missing."

"We can't say for sure that he was the one that pulled the trigger, but finding his wallet on the scene is definitely suspicious," Nancy told her.

"I always knew that something was off about that guy," Joe replied with a shake of his head.

"Well, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves," I told him calmly. "We just need to check in with Demetri and see if he can verify his whereabouts for earlier today."

"So who do you think was pulling Felix's strings?" Edward asked.

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "He didn't really have time to tell us. All we really got was something about a Dr. V."

"Dr. V.?" Emmett asked. "That's a cool name for a villain."

"I wonder if he could have meant one of the Volturi brothers," Jasper mused.

I looked over at Jasper with a sudden interest and could tell that the others were doing the same.

"How many brothers are there?" Nancy asked.

"Well, there's three," Jasper said. "Aro, Marcus, and Caius."

"Do they all work for the company?" Joe questioned.

"They hold various positions within the company, but more or less, the three of them run it," Edward answered.

"I don't think Aro could be behind all of this though," I said. "It doesn't really fit in with him wanting the case solved quickly."

"But don't forget that he's mainly looking out for the company image," Alice said. "Aro isn't the type of person that is warm-hearted enough to really care about the well-being of others."

"Well, what do Marcus and Caius do?" I asked.

"Marcus is the COO of the company, so you could say that he's Aro's second in command," Jasper replied. "He has the most authority behind Aro when it comes to company decisions. Caius, on the other hand, is in charge of the financial side of things. He will be the one everyone has to go through when it comes to yearly budgets. He also is a stickler for meeting our monthly quotas when it comes to products released."

"Would any of them be the type to murder someone?" Joe asked.

Emmett spoke up, "I wouldn't put anything past the three of them. What I will say is that none of them would be the type to get their hands dirty."

"So any of them could have hired Felix and given him the directive to kill Jane," Nancy stated.

"Yes," Jasper confirmed.

"But how do we find out which one?" Nancy mused.

"The better question might be motive," I replied. "We need to look into why Jane could have been murdered. If we can narrow that down, it might give us a better place to start when it comes to the Volturi brothers."

"Any thoughts on that?" Joe asked everyone around the table.

"Well, no one could stand her," Rosalie said. "The lab is better off without her."

"Maybe she was cheating on her husband with one of the brothers," Emmett offered.

"Money," Bella said quietly.

Even though it was quiet, it caught my attention.

"Money is always a good motive, but is there anything in particular that would make you think that?" I asked her.

Bella seemed slightly caught off guard that her response was taken so seriously.

"Well, this may be completely stupid and off the mark, but have any of you guys noticed how many products that we've had to scrap because they didn't meet the specifications?" she asked looking around the table.

"Of course, but we always have bad batches," Alice said. "Mistakes happen in manufacturing all the time."

"But in the past year or so, it just seems like there's been even more batches scrapped than usual," Bella stated. "I mean, I know that we've added on a couple shifts during that time, so it could probably be explained away as lack of training with the new hires, but there's still been a lot of money thrown down the drain."

"I don't know," Alice replied sceptically.

"Is there any way that we could check into this?" I asked looking at Bella. I wasn't really sure if she had something or not, but anything was worth looking into.

"Carlisle might be able to help us out," Edward offered. "I would imagine that as plant manager, he would be able to get a hold of all of that information for us quietly."

"That would be good because if Bella's suggestion is right, we definitely don't want some of the higher ups in the company to know what we're looking into," Joe said.

"Okay, we'll talk to Carlisle later tonight and see what he can do for us," I said. "For now, let's just forget about the mystery and enjoy the evening."

The rest of dinner was entertaining with all the funny stories that were shared among our group. Most of them involved something embarrassing. There was the time that Bella walked in on Alice and Jasper in a compromising position. We all laughed as Bella's face flushed bright red with the memory. Of course, there were several involving Emmett trying to pull pranks on people. Unfortunately for him, most of the time he got caught before the prank was complete.

After paying the check, we all got up and Alice insisted that we go upstairs to the dance club. Even though we all had to go to work tomorrow, no one tried to urge Alice away from a late night out dancing. It might have been because everyone already knew that when Alice sets her mind on something, you might as well just go with the flow because everyone will end up doing what she wants anyway.

As much as I dreaded the thought of an early morning wake up call, I really did want to have some fun and stop thinking about this mystery. Besides, maybe I'll get the chance to dance with Nancy.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N Of course, I still don't own any of the characters. Hope you guys enjoy the story and feel free to leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Nancy's POV**

I walked next to Frank as we went up the stairs leading to the dance club in the same building as the restaurant. Dinner was enjoyable even though we mostly talked about the case. As much as I loved working on mysteries, I felt like a needed a little break from this one.

Everything just seemed to keep spiraling out of control. Just as we were about to get the name of main person behind it all, our suspect gets shot before our very own eyes. We find Demetri's wallet near the scene of the crime, which still confuses me. I'm not sure how much I really trust the guy, but I'm also not sure that he would have committed this type of crime. Then you have Officer Turner popping up at every turn. Of course, he is in charge of the investigation, but I would still love to see him less frequently. All in all, I have a lot more questions than answers.

I felt Frank place his hand on the small of my back as he guided me up the stairs. I smiled at the intimate touch. I could feel myself growing more in tune with him and wondered if this might end up leading somewhere.

Even though it's been a while since I was in a relationship with Ned, I haven't dated anyone else since that time. I guess our breakup made me rethink dating other people. I didn't want to have it end so badly again. I think that I'm just now coming to terms with the fact that I'm scared to move on with someone else. Ned and I were together for such a long time and then everything hit the fan. I'm not sure I want to take that chance with another person.

The main problem with this philosophy is that even though my mind might be saying that I should be careful around Frank, my body is responding to every touch. Even when he's in the same room, I seem to gravitate toward him.

We entered the dance club to loud, beating music. The place already had a large number of people around tables and on the dance floor dancing to the thumping beats. I just followed everyone else as Alice apparently led us to an empty booth that was big enough to fit all of us if we squeeze in together.

I squeezed myself in next to Jacob as Frank slid in next to me on the outside. A waitress came by within seconds and took our drink orders before heading off toward the bartender to have them filled.

A few minutes later, the waitress returned with all of our drinks and placed them in front of each of us. I saw that Edward, being the cautious one, just had a bottle of water in front of him. The rest of us either had a beer, shot, or in my case, a Martini.

I wasn't much of a drinker, so I sipped slowly as I listened to everyone's conversation. Frank was quiet beside me as he nursed his beer. The conversations had turned away from the mystery and work and were now centered on fashion and what to do this weekend, which was a welcome distraction for me.

Jacob leaned over to me and said, "Hey, you mind letting me out of the booth? I spotted someone that I want to dance with."

I smiled at him and then nudged Frank, who was next to me.

"What?" Frank asked.

"Scoot out," I told him.

Frank gave me a quizzical look because he had been off in his own little world and paying little attention to anything going on at the table. He got out of the booth allowing me to scoot myself out. Jacob then got out and gave me a quick smile before heading off into the throngs of dancing bodies.

"What was that about?" Frank asked leaning down to speak into my ear because of the loud music.

I shivered slightly at his closeness before answering, "He saw someone he wanted to dance with."

"Let's dance!" Alice shouted from the booth.

I looked over and laughed at how energetic she was. Frank had told me a little about her from his time spent at work, but even that couldn't really prepare me for what she's really like in person.

I was surprised Alice didn't just crawl over people's laps in order to get out quicker with the way she was bouncing in her seat. Since everyone had slid out of our booth, all the couples took off toward the dance floor. It just let me with Frank and Joe.

"You going to dance?" Frank asked Joe.

"Maybe if I can find a hot girl to dance with," Joe told him.

With a mischievous smile on his face, Joe turned toward me, "Hey Nan, you want to dance?"

Before I had the chance to reply, Frank had his arm wrapped around my waist. "She's with me. Go find your own girl."

I looked up at him to see if I could read his face to tell what he was thinking. I'm not sure what was really going through his mind right now, he just had a very determined, almost angry, look on his face.

Without saying anything, Frank led me out to the dance floor. He found some space between all the dancing bodies for us to dance together.

"Are you okay?" I asked standing on my toes to get as close to his ear as I could so he would be able to hear me.

I felt Frank relax his arms around me a bit. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied but it didn't sound convincing to me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

I could tell he was debating internally as to whether or not to answer my question. He finally leaned down and replied, "Later."

I nodded my head and decided to try to get him to open up to me once we were out of the club. That way we would be able to really have a conversation without loud music or someone overhearing in the background.

A new song started playing with a great beat to it. I had my arms on Frank's shoulders as I moved to the beat. Frank's hands moved from their position on my waist upward. I looked up into his eyes and found they were sparkling back at me. His hands crept up along my sides until they wrapped around my wrists lightly.

I looked up at him confused as to why he was taking my hands off his shoulders. I really didn't think it would be that big of a deal. Before I could ask him about it, he had spun me around so that now my back was pressed up against his chest. He placed my hands back on his shoulders where I wrapped them around his neck. His hands then migrated past my waist to land on my hips. He used his hands to moved my hips to the beat of the music.

I leaned my head back against him. It felt so right to be this close to each other. I don't know how Frank feels about any of this, but for the first time in my life, I feel complete. I have never danced with someone like this before. Even Ned and I always kept a decent amount of space between our bodies. Somehow this lack of space between us ignited more desire and pleasure than I have ever felt before for someone. I come to the realization while I'm in the middle of a dance floor with hundreds of people around that I'm in love with Frank Hardy.

We spent another thirty minutes or so dancing with one another to the music in the club. I was almost oblivious to the people around me because my thoughts kept swirling around Frank.

At some point during our dancing, Frank leaned down slightly, "Do you want to go home?"

I nodded my head at him and we then went to find the others to let them know we were leaving. Alice was the only one that seemed disappointed that we were leaving so early. I'm pretty sure based on some of the looks that we received from the others that they would be on their way out shortly as well.

Frank kept his arm wrapped around my waist as we headed out of the building into the cool, night air.

Once when were clear of the building and most of the people, I looked up at Frank and asked, "So are you going to tell me what was going on earlier?"

Frank glanced down and sighed heavily. "I've been holding back from you," he finally replied.

"I don't understand," I told him puzzled.

Frank stopped walking and turned to face me in the middle of the parking lot. "I haven't said anything about our relationship with each other because I've been afraid it might change things for the worse."

Realization set in as I realized that he must have noticed how I felt about him. Frank was trying to take the high road and push me away gently, but was afraid of hurting my feelings.

I tried to keep my face from revealing too much as I said, "It's okay. I won't let this disrupt how we work together. We can just forget all about it."

"No!," Frank said abruptly. "I can't just forget about how I feel about you. Over these past few days, I've wanted to spend every second around you. I think it's always been like that, but because we were both in relationships with other people, we never really thought to explore where this could go."

Now I was really confused. "But I thought you were telling me that you don't want to be with me like that."

Frank laughed softly and cupped my face in his hands. "How could you ever think that? I got so jealous when Joe asked you to dance tonight that I wanted to hit him. That's not exactly normal behaviour for someone who doesn't want to be with you."

"So what are you saying exactly?" I asked. I was pretty sure what Frank was getting at, but decided that it might be best for both of us to hear it out loud.

"I love you, Nancy," Frank replied softly as he gazed into my eyes.

"I love you, too," I told him.

Frank leaned down ever so slightly and pressed his lips against mine. Even though we've shared kisses before, this one was different. Maybe it was because we didn't have a guilty conscience this time since neither of us was together with someone else. All I can say is that kissing Frank Hardy was an experience I would never tire of.

Frank finally pulled away and smiled down at me with eyes sparkling in their joy. "Let's go home," he said.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N I once again own nothing but my imagination. Hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Frank's POV**

I stepped back from Nancy because I knew that I would have to if we were to ever get home tonight. I was glad that I finally admitted my ever growing feelings for her. Granted, Nancy had to give me that extra shove that led me to opening up to her, but it was worth it.

Now, as I got into the driver's seat of the car, I couldn't help the large smile on my face. After all of the years of awkward tension between the two of us, we were finally a real couple. I finally get the chance to go out in public and hold her in my arms or kiss her without being discovered by a significant other in our lives. Everything was going to work out.

I reached over to grab her hand as she smiled at me from the passenger seat. I didn't realize how late it really was until we had started down the highway back to the Cullen's house. The clock on the dashboard was reading near midnight. Based on the little to no traffic remaining on the road right now, I figured that it was probably pretty accurate.

Nancy turned on the radio and we began listening to some popular music that seemed upbeat. We both settled back and tried to enjoy to drive.

Nancy had her head leaned back against the headrest of the seat with her eyes closed. I knew she probably wasn't asleep and was just relaxing for the time being in our comfortable silence. I glanced up in the rear view mirror and noticed a car coming up on us pretty fast with their bright lights on. Since I was on a larger highway, I merged over to the slow lane so the car would be able to pass us easily on the empty highway.

I glanced back up in the mirror and frowned. The car had switched lanes with me and was still speeding toward us.

"Nan," I said shaking her leg a little.

She opened her eyes to look up at me. "What's the matter?" she asked seeing my frown.

"The car behind us is not acting right," I said for lack of a better way to phrase it.

I saw her peer through the side mirror and then turn around enough in her seat to glance through the rear windshield.

"They're driving with their brights on," Nancy stated.

"I've already changed lanes so they could pass us, but the car switched lanes too," I told her. "They're still speeding toward us."

"Is there any way to lose them?" she asked.

I shook my head, "There isn't a street to turn off on for at least five more miles."

"Suggestions?" I asked Nancy when she stayed quiet.

"Speed up and try to find a street to turn off on?" she replied like it was a question.

I pushed my foot further down on the accelerator and watched the speedometer climb. After glancing in the mirror again, I saw that even though I was gaining speed, the other car had also sped up. It was now closing in on us and there was no where for me to go to avoid it.

"You are buckled in, right?" I asked.

Nancy gave a good yank on her seat belt to show me that she was indeed buckled into her seat.

I looked grimly back up to see if I could make out what kind of car it was or who the driver might be. Unfortunately, due to the brightness of their lights, I couldn't see the driver at all. The vehicle itself was hard to place. All I could really tell was that it was a dark colour and instead of being a sedan, it was actually a SUV of some sort.

That was all I had time to see before I felt the vehicle come close enough to bump us a little on the road. I cursed under my breath because this guy was getting way too close for comfort and we were still miles away from a place to exit.

"Can you go any faster?" Nancy asked, her eyes wide.

"I can try," I said.

I pushed my foot down more but the rental car Joe and I had picked up from the rental agency wasn't exactly made for speed.

It wasn't a minute later before the SUV rammed us again from behind. This time the impact was even harder and I had to struggle to maintain control of the vehicle. I wanted to look over to check on Nancy even though I knew she was fine, but I also realized that I couldn't lose my focus with trying to drive.

Just as I managed to fully gain control of the car, the SUV rammed us again. This time, they hit the left rear corner and there was nothing I could do. I tried to gain control of the car, but it ended up careening off the highway where we clipped a tree hard enough to start the car rolling. I just closed my eyes and hoped that everything would be okay.

When we eventually came to a standstill, I opened my eyes and looked around. My vision was a little blurry and I slowly raised my hand up to my head where I felt something wet all over my face. It didn't take me long to realize that the warm, sticky substance was blood. I groaned as I began to feel pain all over.

I tried to figure out how badly I was injured. From what I could tell, there was definitely some sort of head wound or cut based on the bleeding. I wasn't sure how bad it might really be because you always seem to bleed more with head wounds anyway. I didn't think anything else was broken, but I was definitely going to be heavily bruised for a while until I healed.

"Nancy?" I called out. It sounded more like a croak than a real word.

I didn't hear a response. I tried to turn to look at her, but the damage to the car and myself was restricting my movements. I finally managed to turn my head. I cried out in anguish at what I saw.

My poor, dear, Nancy was covered in blood from head to toe. Her eyes were closed and I couldn't even be sure if she was alive or not. I felt the tears poor down my cheeks at the thought that she might not be with me anymore. It was a pain that I wasn't sure I could suffer. I felt my eyes close of their own accord and everything fade in darkness as everything crashed into me in that one moment.

**Joe's POV**

I watched as Frank and Nancy came over to tell us they were leaving for the night. At first I thought it was pretty early and they probably just wanted to have some alone time. I know that all of us have looked at them wondering when they would finally figure their stuff out and become an official couple. I was hoping that tonight might be the night, so I waved them off and wished them a good night while I returned to dancing with the cute blonde I found at the club tonight.

After a couple more songs, I checked my watch. My eyes almost bugged out of my head because I couldn't believe it was that late. I'm sure the others hadn't realized the time either or they would have already said something about leaving. After all, we did have to go to work the next day.

I said a quick goodbye to the chick and walked around the place trying to find everyone. Luckily, most of them were gathered around the table we had first occupied this evening.

"Hey guys, have you checked out the time?" I asked them when I came over.

Emmett and Jasper glanced at their watches before doing a double-take.

"Crap, I didn't know it was that late," Emmett exclaimed.

"How late is it?" Bella asked groggily. I was surprised she could even fall asleep in a place this loud.

"Past midnight," Jasper stated. "Let's go."

We all quickly gathered everything and headed for the door. I thought about calling Frank to check in with him but decided against it. He was probably already home. If he wasn't working something out with Nancy, then I would imagine he was asleep.

I climbed in the back of Edward's car with Jake as Bella sat down in the passenger seat up front. The others were heading off in different directions to get back to their respective living arrangements for the evening.

We sped down the road. I'm not sure how fast Edward was driving, but it was definitely fast. The guy was a maniac, and coming from me, that was saying something. I liked speed and all, but he could blow me out of the water.

Because of how fast we were going, I was surprised when Edward quickly put on the brakes. I leaned forward a little in my seat to look out the front windshield. I could vaguely see a car that had been in a really bad accident off the side of the road. It was hard to tell anything about it due to the darkness and the fact that the vehicle had clearly rolling over several times.

As we got closer to it, I was able to get a better look at the vehicle. Even though it was severely damaged, the headlights were still on. Those lights plus the lights on Edward's car illuminated the area enough for me to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Oh God, that looks like our rental car," I spoke in barely above a whisper.

"Joe, are you sure," Edward asked seriously.

"I can't be absolutely certain with all the damage, but it does share a close resemblance," I responded. My brain was trying to disconnect because I was truly afraid of what we might see if we get closer to the car.

"Maybe this is an old accident?" Jake offered.

"I wish I could think that, but it really doesn't look like it," Edward said with a slight shake of his head.

Edward pulled his car off well to the side of the road and put it in park.

"Come on, we need to check this out just in case," Edward told me. "Bella, honey, why don't you stay in the car?"

"Okay," Bella whispered. I could tell that she was afraid of what we might discover.

I got out of the car and walked over to the vehicle with trepidation. I really wasn't sure what we would find and it scared the hell out of me. I was still sort of hoping for Jake's theory of it being an old accident, but I knew he was wrong. We would have noticed it on the way over since the headlights were still on.

I led the way to the car and peered inside. I felt my breath catch in my throat as the horror of what I was seeing seared itself into my brain.

I vaguely heard Edward in the background calling an ambulance on his cell phone. It did nothing to relieve the tension in me. I could see Frank and Nancy inside. Frank had blood all over his face from various cuts that were probably due to the windshield, which had shattered sometime during the crash. I was relieved to see that he was breathing even though he wasn't awake at the moment.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to get either one of them out because the vehicle had apparently rolled over so many times that the frame was crushed. They would definitely have to be cut out of the wreckage. I wished that I could see Nancy better, but from my vantage point, all I could see was that she was in pretty bad shape. I just hoped that both of them would be okay.

Thankfully, it was only minutes before an ambulance along with the fire department and police showed up to the scene. We all moved away quickly to let the people have as much room as possible to do their jobs.

After a gruelling hour, the fire department had finally pried away enough of the vehicle that Frank and Nancy could both be retrieved from inside the wreckage. I hovered around as the paramedics worked on both of them. I wasn't paying any attention to what everyone else was doing. My sole focus was for my brother and one of our dearest friends.

"How are they?" I managed to ask one of the paramedics that had stepped away for a moment.

The guy looked at me with sombre eyes. "The man will be fine after he gets cleaned up and rests overnight in the hospital. The woman is alive. Her injuries are more severe, but I think she'll pull through. It's going to be a tenuous twenty-four hours though."

"Thank you," I told him feeling somewhat relieved.

Even though his news wasn't really good news, it still gave me enough to be hopeful that Frank and Nancy would be okay. I just needed to make it through the next twenty-four hours. After that was done, I wasn't going to stop until I found out who did this to them and make sure they pay for it.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N I still don't own any of these characters. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Nancy's POV**

I opened my eyes gradually and immediately closed them again because of the brightness of the light. I wasn't sure where I was. All I really knew was that I was aching all over. I decided to try opening my eyes again and hope that I could figure out where I was.

I blinked my eyes opened again a few times trying to adjust to the lighting.

"Nancy?" I heard a familiar voice ask from next to me.

I turned my head slowly in the direction of the sound as my vision continued to adjust to my surroundings. Instead of a bright blur, it was now becoming a dimmer blur with a few objects coming in focus around me. I could hear a constant beeping in the background and groaned because I knew that was going to become annoying soon.

"Nancy, how are you feeling? Do you hurt anywhere? Should I call a nurse?" the voice to my side asked. It seemed like non-stop questions.

"Ugh, stop with the inquisition," I croaked out.

I finally managed to focus in on the person next to me. I smiled when I saw Frank sitting on the edge of the seat next to the bed holding onto my hand. His expression was so full of love and concern that I felt my heart melt.

"You scared the hell out of me, Nan," Frank said softly. "For a moment I really thought I had lost you."

I smiled even though it was even painful to do that. "You should go back to school for evasive driving tactics," I joked.

I was glad when my silly joke made Frank smile. I didn't want him to worry over me.

"Seriously, how are you feeling?" he asked.

"I've been better," I replied. "I ache all over and that beeping machine is going to drive me insane."

"I'll see about getting a nurse in here to handle it," Frank said starting to stand up.

I gripped his hand a little more firmly to hold him in place. "You don't need to go anywhere right now," I told him. "I would much rather you sit here with me for a little while and relax. You don't look so hot yourself."

It was true, though. Frank's good looks were distorted at the moment by several cuts on his face. I could tell that most of them seemed to be superficial, but I bet it was still annoying to have so many cuts. He also looked like he had been punched in both eyes. I'm guessing that it might have been from the airbag deploying in the car.

"You know," I began, "after seeing how you look and the fact that you're actually up and walking around, I'm not so sure I want to look in a mirror any time soon."

"You still look beautiful," Frank told me smiling.

"So, what are my injuries and when can I get out of here?"

Frank's smile dimmed a little. "Well, to start with, your entire body is covered in bruises."

"And?" I prodded. I knew that I was experiencing more pain and fatigue than was warranted by just bruises.

"Some of your ribs were broken. A couple of them punctured into organs and they had to take you in for emergency surgery."

I exhaled heavily. "But everything is going to be okay, right?" I asked concerned. I was hooked up to so many machines and still had too much pain medication in my system to really know what my state currently was.

Frank gave a slight smile and nodded. "The doctor said that you have passed all the major roadblocks that they look for, so you are expected to make a full recovery. However, don't get your hopes up too soon because you're probably going to be in the hospital for a couple of weeks.

"A couple of weeks!" I exclaimed.

"They want to make sure that your body has healed itself as much as possible before releasing you after the trauma you suffered," Frank continued.

"What am I going to do stuck here in a hospital?" I asked. "You know me better than anyone. I know you realize that this is going to be Hell on Earth for me."

Frank nodded his head with a slight smile on his face. "I know, Nan, but these things can't be helped. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you get better."

I nodded my head resignedly. I knew there really was no point in me trying to fight anyone over the whole healing process my body needed. Even without Frank telling me how long I was going to be in here, I knew that it would be a while based on how I felt.

I looked at the clock and noticed that it was just past lunch, which made me turn to look at Frank again. "Why aren't you at work?" I asked him.

"I wasn't going to go to work while you were still unconscious. I wanted to make sure that somebody was with you at all times to get updates on your progress," he stated. "Besides, Joe went in today, so he still might be able to get some snooping taken care of in my absence."

"Are you sure this won't be a problem?" I prodded.

I wasn't sure what answer I wanted to hear from Frank. Part of me wanted him to stay with me like he planned because I liked having him around. It wasn't just freedom from this boring stay; it was also the fact that his presence soothed me like no other could. I really could just forget about the mystery taking place around us. Well, I could for the most part anyway.

Although, the part of me that couldn't quite put down the mystery for good wanted him to go to work. It seemed like Frank and Joe were gathering new information every day. Granted, not all of it related to the case we were working on, but it still was information that could be useful to us in some respect, even if it was only to eliminate suspects. I hated depriving Frank from the prospect of finding a new lead just because he felt obligated to stuck around while I was here.

"Even if it was a problem not going to work today, I would still stay here with you," Frank told me gently. "You mean everything to me and I will not leave you alone."

We sat in a comfortable silence before I heard Frank's stomach growl. The nurse had already brought a tray of food for me to eat, but I haven't seen him eat anything since I woke up this morning.

"You should go pick something up to eat," I told him as I spooned some mashed potatoes in my mouth.

"I'm fine," Frank replied folding his arms across his chest in a look that reminded me of how stubborn he could be at times.

"Look, you sound like there's a grizzly bear inside your stomach trying to claw its way out," I pointed out. "Go get something to eat. I'll be fine for the fifteen minutes or so that you're actually gone."

I could tell he was hesitating now. I tried to keep the smile from breaking out on my face.

"Okay, I'll go grab something quick," Frank finally relented. "Just please keep the call button nearby in case you need anything at all, and I'll try to be back as soon as I can."

"Okay, I'll be fine," I told him.

Frank stood up and gave me another quick glance before officially walking out of the hospital room and allowing the door to close.

I was surprised that the silence left in the room was almost repressive. I wasn't sure what to do with myself without having something to work on or a person to talk to in here with me. I watched the clock on the wall tick slowly. It seemed to take forever for five minutes to go by and even after that, I knew that it would still be another ten minutes before Frank would be back.

I huffed hating how dependent I had become. I was practically tied to this stupid bed and now I needed Frank to give me the companionship that I craved.

A couple more minutes passed before I heard a knock on the door. I knew it couldn't be Frank so I figured it was just a courtesy knock the nurse was giving me before coming in and poking me.

The door opened and I saw my dad standing on the other side.

"Dad!" I called out happily.

"Nancy, I was so worried," Carson spoke as he quickly crossed the room to sit beside the bed.

"I'm fine, really," I told him calmly.

"You were almost killed," he told me seriously. "Maybe you shouldn't be working on this case."

"I've never given up a case before and I'm not going to start now," I replied angrily.

"You've also never been this close to dying on me," Carson stated firmly.

"Dad, I promise to be careful," I told him resolutely. "I'm not giving up on this case. We must be getting close to something big if someone's already going after us."

"I still don't like it," Carson said frowning.

"It's my life and I'm going to live it the way I want to," I told him firmly. I didn't like arguing with my father, but occasionally it became necessary.

"Am I interrupting something?" Frank's voice came from the doorway.

"Just me trying to convince my daughter that she should give up this case," Carson replied.

"How's that going for you, sir?" Frank asked with a smirk.

"Exactly how you would think," Carson said with a shrug. "I hope you're not nearly as stubborn as Nancy is."

"He's worse," I claimed.

"Doubtful," Frank replied.

"Nancy, I'll be staying in town this weekend, so I'll be by to visit you everyday," Carson told me.

"No doubt you'll try to persuade me everyday as well," I grumbled.

"You know me too well," my dad replied.

He gave me a kiss to my forehead before heading out.

"Oh, before I forget," Carson said turning back to us, "I want to thank you for saving my daughter."

Frank looked up surprised. "But, I didn't..."

Carson shook his head slightly. "You did everything in your power to keep her from being injured. Just because she did end up with some injuries doesn't mean that it couldn't have been worse if you had not been driving that car. Thank you."

With that, my father walked out of the room allowing the door to close behind him.

Frank and I looked at each a moment in silence. I was contemplating my father's words as he left. I knew he was pushing for me to stop working on this case, but I think he knew beforehand that I would never put the case down. He was just hoping to persuade me otherwise.

Frank and I sat back and watched some daytime programming on the television. There really wasn't much to watch, but we would occasionally find some decent shows on throughout the day.

It wasn't long before dinner was brought in for me. I looked over at Frank and wondered when he would leave to grab something to eat. He was watching the local news on the television as I ate my dinner.

Before the news was over, there was a knock on the door. I saw Joe's head peak through before he walked into the room with a broad grin on his face. Right behind him was Carlisle, who was carrying a briefcase that he must use at work.

Carlisle shut the door carefully behind him before coming over and taking the empty chair on the other side of my bed while Joe stood near Frank.

"How are you feeling today?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm really sore but otherwise I feel fine," I told him.

"That's good to hear," Carlisle replied.

"You put us through quite the scare, Nan," Joe told me.

"Anyway, to get down to business, I brought you something to look over," Carlisle stated.

I watched as he pulled several sheets of paper out of his briefcase and handed them over to me. It was a large spreadsheet that contained several of the products made in the company.

"Now, first of all, I don't have access to any of the documents in the Tablets facility, so you guys will only have this for the Liquids building," Carlisle began. "What you are looking at it a table we make for our production. There is actually two different tables in the stack of papers you have. One is for the raw materials that come into the warehouse for testing in the lab and the other one is the actual batches of product we make."

"So what are we looking for exactly?" I asked him.

"Well, I'm not sure what you guys might be looking for in those tables, but I'll explain what everything means to you," Carlisle admitted. "Maybe after knowing what you're looking at, you can decide if that theory of yours about the bad batches is a possibility or not."

"Okay, tell us everything you can about these spreadsheets," Frank said.

"Well, the product is self-explanatory. I know you guys won't know which products are controlled or not, so you can just ask me or anyone else that works in the company that you would consider trustworthy. Next to the product are various dates. The top columns will tell you what they apply to within the manufacturing process. I would suggest you ignore those dates for the most part. The only thing they might be good for with your intentions would be to give you a time frame as to when each batch was started. There are also batch sizes listed that will tell you how much material was produced. Finally, the part you would be most interested in is the comments section. That will tell you whether or not the batch was released. If it wasn't released, it will give you an explanation as to what the problem was," Carlisle explained. "Any questions?"

"Not right now," I said with a shake of my head, "but we'll definitely let you know if something comes up. I think right now we just need a little while to get the hang of reading this."

"That's fine," Carlisle said. "One other thing though, I don't want this to get out to anyone, so please don't have it out for nurses or anyone to see."

"That won't be a problem," Joe said.

"Thank you for getting this for us," Frank told Carlisle.

"Anything to help you guys solve the mystery," Carlisle replied. "I just hope it helps you out."

Carlisle excused himself from the room soon afterwards in order to get home for dinner. Joe decided to stay with me in the room while Frank went out to grab both of them something to eat.

I looked over to Joe and handed him half of the stack of papers I had. "Well, why don't we get started?"

"You read my mind, Nan," Joe replied smiling.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N Okay, so maybe I should apologize for all of the cliff-hanger chapters. I hope you guys don't really mind them too much because it makes it fun to end it like that. I still don't own the fabulous characters in the story. Hope you enjoy and please leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Frank's POV**

I came back a little while later to Nancy's hospital room to find her and Joe going through the stack of papers Carlisle brought over earlier. After putting the papers aside, we all dug in to the soup and sandwiches that I picked up at a nearby deli.

Even though I knew that Joe would always prefer a bacon cheeseburger, I didn't want to give Nancy something like that while she was still in the hospital. I figured that a bowl of soup and a sandwich would probably be a nice change from whatever she's been eating here for the past couple days.

When we finished eating and I disposed of all the trash, we were ready to get started looking through the paperwork again.

"Okay, do you want to break this up at all?" I asked looking between Nancy and Joe.

"It might make it easier," Nancy agreed.

"Okay, I'll look through the spreadsheets for the raw materials and you guys can split up the finished product batches that were made," Joe suggested.

We spent several hours looking through the spreadsheets. It took me a while to really get the hang of what I was looking at on the sheets of paper even with Carlisle tutorial earlier today. Once I did get the hang of it, I kept trying to look for a particular pattern to show up, but I wasn't seeing one. I didn't want to give up on this potential clue so easily, so by the time the night nurse showed up, I decided it was time to pack up the paper and take it to the house.

Joe and I quickly put all of the paperwork away as Renata came in to check Nancy's vital signs for the evening. I didn't think it would really matter if a nurse saw them because there was no way she would know what we were actually looking at. However, Carlisle did want to keep this from prying eyes, so I felt obligated to him to make sure that no one saw it if I could help it.

I saw Renata look at the papers Joe and I were putting away in a binder before she turned back to her task of writing down all of the vital sign statistics.

She left a few minutes later and I stood up. "Nan, I think we're going to head back to the house."

Nancy smiled up a me. "Okay, I guess I'll try to get some sleep. Let me know if you find anything out."

"You'll be the first to know if we do," I promised. "For now, just get some rest."

"Bye Nancy," Joe said. "We'll see you again tomorrow."

With a quick goodbye to her, Joe and I walked out of the room and headed for the car.

"So, do you have any ideas about what's going on?" Joe asked as we were driving back.

I shook my head, "No, I haven't been able to really find a pattern, but I don't want to give up too easily."

"I agree. There's something about this possibility that just seems like we're on the right track," Joe replied.

"Well, I guess if we can actually find a pattern in it all, it would definitely give us a potential motive for wanting somebody dead," I stated. "We just have to figure out how it would end up linking back to Jane."

"True," Joe said. "Of course, that is a big 'if'."

We pulled up to the house a few minutes later. I walked inside behind Joe only to find just about everyone already hanging out in the living room.

"Hey man, how's Nancy?" Emmett asked.

"She's doing better," I answered. "I wouldn't imagine that she'll be out of the hospital any time soon though."

"I bet that's driving her crazy," Edward remarked. "From what little time I've spent around her, she seems to be the type that always needs to be out doing something instead of sitting around watching television."

I nodded in agreement. "If she could check out of the hospital right now, I'm sure she would."

"So, did you guys come up with anything else?" Rosalie asked.

"Yeah, any good clues?" Alice added excitedly.

"Nothing so far," Joe admitted. "Carlisle gave us a bunch of spreadsheets for the raw materials that came in as well as the stuff that's been made, but we haven't found any patterns in them so far."

"Maybe we could help," Bella offered. "Since we work at the company, I suppose there's the possibility that we might notice something that you guys wouldn't."

"That's not a bad idea actually," I admitted.

Soon, we had all the spreadsheets laid out across the floor and were sitting around them as a big group. As a group, we worked in silence. I was still trying to work out a pattern in the rejected batches of product hours later when we all began yawning.

"This stuff makes my head hurt," Rosalie spoke up finally.

"Guys, this is kind of interesting," Emmett said.

"What did you find?" I asked moving closer to him.

Emmett was focusing on the raw materials that came in since that was his department at work. He pointed toward one of the spreadsheets where he had highlighted some of the rejected batches.

"I remember the investigations we did on these batches a few months ago," Emmett responded. "The initial testing showed that the codeine that we got from the supplier wasn't at the purity level we require to release it. There was a big to-do about it because we had never had any trouble from that supplier before and all of a sudden we get three out of five of their lots that appeared to be contaminated."

"So what happened?" Joe asked.

"Well, I remember someone calling another company that gets their codeine from the same source. Their supply checked out, so everyone thought that it must have been contaminated out back in manufacturing," Emmett recalled.

"How could that happen?" I asked.

"Several ways actually," Edward piped up. "We've had cases where someone weighs out too much of an ingredient and ends up putting the excess back in the wrong drum. There could be bags breaking before they make into the tank and contaminate other things that were left uncovered."

"So it was decided that this codeine got contaminated in manufacturing?" I asked Emmett to make sure I understood exactly what he was saying.

"That's what the people above us decided in the write-up of the investigation," Emmett supplied. "I never agreed with it though."

"How come?" Joe questioned.

"I don't think it became contaminated there because we would have sampled it before it was ever moved into the manufacturing area to be used in the first place," Emmett explained. "We sample the raw materials as soon as they come in. That's usually when they are still in the warehouse. They don't get moved into the manufacturing area until we've released them after our testing is complete."

I sucked in a breath at that. "So what you're saying is that since no other company apparently had a problem with this shipment of codeine, someone intentionally contaminated it?"

Emmett nodded grimly, "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Okay, for the sake of the argument," I began, "if the codeine was intentionally contaminated so that it would be rejected, what happens to it from there?"

"Typically, the rejected batches would be gathered up and sent off to another facility where they would then be disposed of," Jasper told me.

"That means that if this was intentional, someone might have known how to intercept that shipment," Joe said.

"But what could be gained from that?" I mused.

"Money," Alice said. "Stuff like that could be sold illegally and generate a lot of cash."

I saw Carlisle walk in on our discussion toward the end and looked up hoping he might have something to offer.

"What do you think?" I asked him. "Is this possible or not?"

Carlisle looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking. "I'm not going to say that this is impossible, but you do realize how many people would have to be in on it, right?"

Edward nodded in agreement, "We realize that, but it just seems like the most logical solution to what's going on."

"What I want to know," Joe spoke up, "is how all of this could be going on under Carlisle's nose?"

Carlisle chuckled at that. "Well, I might be the plant manager, but I sometimes get so busy with meetings that these investigations aren't really anything I pay close attention to. I've always let those matters be handled by the department managers in question, instead of trying to micromanage anything. Otherwise, I would probably never get all the work done that gets stacked up on my desk."

"Okay, so Carlisle doesn't hear about anything going on, but Jane either finds out about it or was involved in the first place," I speculated.

"I'm going to say that she probably wasn't involved in the first place," Bella said. "I just can't see her doing something illegal."

"Bella, that lady was a witch," Rosalie pointed out. "I think you're trying to idolize her or something."

"I'm not trying to idolize her, Rose, I just don't think she would be the type to let this go on if she knew about it," Bella responded.

"Okay, hypothetically speaking," I began, "Jane finds out about somebody selling drugs for profit on the streets. If Bella's assumption is correct, then that means that Jane most likely confronted the person about what was going on."

"Which leads us to that person hiring Felix to kill her in order to gain her silence," Joe added.

"So who would be the person in charge?" Emmett mused.

"I vote for Aro," Joe said. "Maybe he wants to make even more money than the company pays him."

Carlisle shook his head. "I don't agree with that. Aro loves this company and I will never believe that he would have anything to do with bringing his company down."

"The next two guys in charge are Aro's brothers, correct?" I asked Carlisle.

"Yes, Marcus and Caius," Carlisle confirmed. "Marcus is in charge of Operations and serves as Aro's second in command. Caius deals with everything involving the finances."

"Do you think either of them could have something to do with this?" I asked Carlisle.

"I really can't see any of the Volturi brothers doing this. I understand why you guys would look at them for the investigation, but I just don't believe you'll find anything there," Carlisle told me.

A short while later Carlisle retired for the night and left all of us still considering the possibilities of who might be behind the murder.

Jasper was sitting back looking thoughtful for a while. I really liked the guy. He seemed to have a level of calmness no matter what the situation might be. I could picture him as a detective like us really. He not only maintained a cool and collected manner, but he also had a way of seeing the logic behind something that some people might not notice.

"So, what are you so contemplative about, Jasper?" I asked finally.

Jasper rubbed his chin with his hand before turning to look me in the eye. "If I were a betting man, I'd wager that Caius is the one behind it all."

"What makes you think that?" Alice asked.

I leaned forward a little because I was very interested in what Jasper's thought process behind his deductions was.

"Well, I agree with Carlisle that it can't be Aro behind this," Jasper began. "It just doesn't make sense to me. If Aro was the one behind it all, then he wouldn't have been so eager to call you guys in and let you more or less have free reign within the company day after day. He also stands to lose more if word of this got out to the public. It's his company featuring his name, so if his name is tarnished, the company's name is also tarnished regardless of how much of a comeback the company makes after the fact."

"Okay, I'm with you so far," I said nodding.

"Now, I know you guys don't know a whole lot about Marcus," Jasper resumed. "Marcus is the type of guy who prefers to see everything run smooth as silk. He doesn't like problems or anything falling behind schedule. In fact, I would almost want to classify him as OCD in his business manner. Everything needs to be perfect all the time. I can't imagine actually working closely with a guy like that," Jasper said with a slight shake of his head. "Anyway, I think Marcus is too rigid to be pulling the strings behind this kind of operation."

"You're right about us not knowing Marcus," I told him. "Neither Joe nor I have actually met the guy, so we'll take you at your word for now."

"That leads to Caius," Jasper continued. "I seriously doubt that anyone under those three have the financial means to afford a guy like Felix based on what I've heard from you guys. Now, I will be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about the guy. I've only met him once when I first started working here, and there's very little that we hear about him through company gossip. What I can tell you is that my first impression of the guy is that he is tricky. He gives off that calm exterior to everyone but behind it all, I think he's cold and calculating. Now, I would think there has to be an underlying reason why Caius might turn against his brothers, but I wouldn't know what that might be. I just know that he has the financial means and I would wager that he's got the mentality to do something like this as well," Jasper finished.

I sat back and raised my eyebrows. "That was definitely well thought. I can't say whether or not you're right about your perceptions, but I think Joe and I will try to find out some more about all three of the brothers."

"These guys definitely have to be behind this," Joe spoke up.

"Well, at least one of them," I replied.

We were all jolted out of our reflections on Jasper's revelations by the shrill ringing of the telephone. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was past midnight.

"Who would be calling this late?" Edward grumbled as he stood up and headed over to the nearby phone in the room.

"Hello?" he answered.

I watched as his face paled a little before he turned to me. "I think you better take this, Frank."

I stood up and walked over to where Edward was holding out the phone to me. I gave him a questioning look, but his eyes wouldn't meet mine. I hesitantly grabbed the phone and said, "Hello, this is Frank Hardy."

"Frank, you need to come to the hospital," Officer Turner spoke on the other line.

"What happened?" I asked now trying to keep from panicking.

"There's been a situation regarding Nancy," he replied. "I'd rather not discuss the details over the phone. Just know that she's okay and everything is being taken care of for the time being."

"Okay, I'll be right there," I told him hanging up.

Everyone in the room was staring at me. I looked at them trying to maintain my focus when all I really wanted to do was get to Nancy and make sure she was okay with my own eyes.

"Something happened at the hospital," I told everyone.

I heard a couple of gasps but didn't pay attention to who they escaped from. My mind was solely on Nancy and getting to the hospital. I vaguely remember grabbing a jacket on my way out of the door.

Before I made it to the driver's side of the car, Joe was there and grabbing my keys from me.

"You're in no state to drive," Joe told me.

I just nodded briefly and got into the passenger seat. I barely had my door closed before we were off with the tires squealing. I sat back with my eyes closed hoping that Officer Turner was right and Nancy would be okay.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N And here is yet another chapter. I still own nothing but my car. Hope you guys enjoy. Feel free to leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Nancy's POV**

After Frank and Joe left, I flipped through the channels on the television for a while. There really wasn't anything good on, but I settled for a generic movie that I found on one of the stations. I sat back and watched that for a couple hours before it ended.

I looked around the room wishing there was something I could do with my time. This whole hospital stay has been torture so far just from the sheer boredom of it all. I haven't even gotten out of the bed except to go to the bathroom and bathe. Even those things were with an escort in the form of a nurse.

What I really wanted to do was to go over those spreadsheets again. My gut feeling was telling me there was something to be found in them and I wanted to find it.

Since I couldn't look over the spreadsheets tonight, I began thinking of anything I might be able to do with my time. I looked over to the phone beside my bed and wondered if there was anyone I could call at this time of night.

I knew I could probably call Bess or George. Even though they were probably busy, it might be nice to talk to them a little. I wondered if they even knew I was stuck in this hospital. I decided that they would have probably found out from my dad.

I decided to pick up the phone and call Bess. She had said she would try to come up here if she had the time after all. George was off on a vacation, so I didn't want to bother her. I dialed Bess's number and waited for the line to be picked up.

"Hello?" Bess's voice spoke.

"Hey Bess," I greeted.

"Nan, it's great to hear from you," Bess said happily. "I heard you were in the hospital. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine other than being extremely bored," I told her.

"What happened?" Bess asked seriously.

"A car ran Frank and I off the road," I replied. "I think we must be getting too close to something big."

"I would tell you that you should probably just put the mystery down, but I know you wouldn't listen to me," Bess said.

I laughed. "You would be right on that account."

"So how are things with Frank?" Bess asked.

"They're good," I responded.

"How good might they be," Bess prodded.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" I asked knowing that Bess would love details.

"I just want to know if you guys still have that crazy attraction to each other," she said.

I pondered how to answer that question for a moment. "It was actually weird at first," I finally said.

"Weird how?" Bess asked.

"Well, it's been a while since we've seen each other. I think we were almost dancing around each other because we didn't know how to act around each other," I tried to explain.

"And now you're cool with each other?" she asked.

I almost groaned because Bess can be way too perceptive when it comes to relationships.

"We've worked a few things out," I hedged.

I heard Bess squeal on the other end of the line and held the phone away from my ear.

"I can't believe it!" she exclaimed. "I've been waiting for ages for you two to get together."

I became confused by her comment. "But you and George always told me that Ned and I were good together."

"Well, it's true that you and Ned were good together," Bess confirmed. "However, there's something else between you and Frank. I would almost characterize it as another dynamic that just isn't present in most relationships."

"Another dynamic?" I asked with doubt lacing my tone.

"Yeah, there's something different about the two of you," Bess spoke. "I'm not even sure how to describe it really. You two have such unbelievable chemistry with each other that we just sat back and waited until you would get together. We always knew it would happen one day."

"So you just expected Ned and I to break up?" I asked irritably.

"As much as I knew you loved each other, it just wasn't the same," Bess said. "Why else would you and Frank always end up passionately kissing each other during cases you worked together even when you were dating other people?"

"I...," I began not knowing what to say to that.

"It's fine Nan," Bess told me. "Like I said earlier, I'm really happy for you. I think you and Frank are perfect for each other."

"Thanks Bess," I said with a sigh. "It's nice to hear that from you."

"Do you need me to come up and help with anything?" Bess asked.

"No, I'm fine really," I told her. "I'm pretty sure everyone is working as hard as they can on the case without me."

"Well, make sure you call me if you need anything at all," Bess replied.

"Will do," I promised.

I yawned loudly over the phone.

"Nan, I'm going to let you go so you can get some rest," Bess told me.

"Okay," I said. "It was good talking to you tonight."  
"Same here," Bess responded. "Get some rest Nan and take care of yourself."

"Okay," I said.

We both said our goodbyes before I hung up the phone. I was really tired even though I've probably already spent more than enough time sleeping during my stay here. I laid back and closed my eyes trying to get comfortable.

I think hospital beds would be a lot more comfortable if they weren't adjustable in so many places. I adjusted the bed numerous times during the next hour or so trying to get a decent sleeping position. After a few minutes, I just gave up and turned the lights out.

The room was pushed into darkness and I just laid back and closed my eyes. I wasn't really comfortable in my current position, but I hoped that sleep would overtake me regardless of that particular fact.

Ten minutes later, I was still awake even though my eyes were closed. I heard the door to the room open softly and wondered who would be coming in at this time of night. I already had the schedule down to the minute for the nurses who came in during the daytime as well as during the night and this wasn't one of the typical nursing visits that I was becoming so accustomed to.

Whoever it was didn't speak as their steps took them closer to my bed. I debated on whether I should pretend to be asleep or not. For a moment I had almost decided to pretend to be asleep, but something in my gut told me that something about this visit just wasn't right.

I opened my eyes to see who was in the room and what they were doing. I saw Renata standing beside the bed near the IV I was still wearing holding a syringe up in the air and squirting some liquid out of it.

I couldn't help the gasp that escaped from my mouth because I knew that I shouldn't be receiving any drugs.

"What are you doing?" I asked trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

"Keeping your nose out of other people's business," she replied snidely before trying to insert the syringe into the IV line.

I jerked the line away from her reach. When that attempt was foiled, Renata just came after me with the syringe. I guess she was just going to stab me somewhere with it. Even though I was still in pain, I rolled out of the bed on the opposite side from where she stood. I managed to have enough common sense in this crisis to grab the call button and I was pressing it every few seconds.

Renata was coming for me again as I heard the light voice of a nurse ask if I needed anything.

"Help!" I yelled hoping that someone would hear me in here.

I kept scooting out of the way of Renata's reach, but soon my back was against the wall. I hadn't had enough recovery time to really gain my full strength back, so I was pretty sure that I would lose in a fight against her.

I saw the syringe come down at me, and I grabbed Renata's arm trying to hold it away. We were struggling for what seemed like forever, but was really less than minute before the door opened and two nurses, a male and female, came into the room.

They quickly saw the situation and hurried over to where we were struggling with the syringe. The male nurse grabbed Renata and pulled her away from me while the female took the syringe out of her hand.

"What's going on in here?" the female nurse asked.

"She was going to inject me with something," I told them still feeling frazzled from the whole ordeal.

"I was just trying to give her some pain medication and got attacked," Renata accused.

"I'm no longer being given medicine for pain," I stated.

The female nurse looked over my chart and confirmed that I was correct. "I'm afraid we're going to have to call the police, Renata."

Another nurse came into the room and escorted me away from the others. She led a short way down the hall into what appeared to be a staff room for the doctors and nurses.

"Do you need me to get you anything?" she asked in a gentle voice.

I shook my head without responding verbally. The nurse brought me a cup of water and put it in front of me regardless and I began sipping on it.

It didn't take long before I heard more shouting from Renata followed by several male voices in the hallway. I looked toward the door of the staff room shortly before it opened to reveal Officer Turner.

I would have groaned at seeing him again if I wasn't so emotionally and physically drained from the encounter with Renata. As it was, I just stared at him without speaking.

"Nancy, I'm so glad you're okay," Officer Turner said as he came and took a chair next to me. "One of my officers has arrested Renata and she is currently being taken down to the police station. The nurse kept the syringe she was going to use as evidence. It will be taken down to our lab for testing, but it looks like she was going to give you an overdose of morphine."

I held his gaze as I digested that information. Renata was going to kill me because I was investigating this case. That must mean that we're on the tip of the iceberg as far as cracking it wide open.

"Did she say anything at all to you, Nancy?" Officer Turner asked.

I shook my head, "Nothing really. She only said that this was to keep me from getting into other people's business."

"What did she mean by that?" he asked.

"I could only imagine that we're close to something big," I said.

"Have you guys found out anything else?" he prodded.

I didn't want to tell him about the spreadsheets we were looking through that Carlisle gave us. Even though I was speaking to a detective on the case, something wanted to keep that information to myself for the time being. It's not like any of us had found a connection in them yet.

"We haven't found anything new," I told him honestly. After all, that part was true unless Frank had found something since he left me this evening.

"Okay," Officer Turned said sighing.

Before he had a chance to stand up, the door flew open and Frank came rushing in.

"Nancy! Are you okay?" he exclaimed running over to me and cupping my face tenderly in his hands.

"I'm fine," I said as I looked into his worried eyes. "Officer Turner has taken care of the situation."

"I'll be seeing you around, Nancy," Officer Turner said from the door. "Take care of yourself."

He walked out of the door before I even had the thought to respond to him. My focus was on the person in front of me who had somehow managed to steal my heart away.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

I looked up startled because I didn't even see Joe come into the room. I shook my head slightly before giving both of them the run-down on the events of the evening.

Joe whistled softly. "We must be on to something if she went after you."

"Well, the car accident could have been the beginning of this," I pointed out.

"I don't want you to be left alone any more," Frank said.

"I can take care of myself," I told him.

"Look," Frank began gazing into my eyes, "I know you can take care of yourself, but I can't have anything happen to you. Just the thought that something happened tonight was..."

"I understand but it's not like you can stay here twenty-four hours a day to watch over me," I tried to argue.

My argument stopped when I saw the doctor enter the room. Dr. Williams walked over to me and reached for my wrist to take my pulse. He seemed to do a quick examination of me before stepping back.

"The nurse called me in after what happened tonight," Dr. Williams explained. "I just wanted to make sure that you're doing fine and not experiencing any symptoms of shock or stress."

"I'm feel fine," I told him trying to keep the exasperation out of my voice. It seemed like I had already told a million people this tonight.

Dr. Williams smiled at me. "Considering what happened here tonight, I can understand if you might not want to remain in the hospital."

"You mean I'm free to go?" I asked unable to hide the excitement at the prospect of leaving.

He held up a hand to calm me down. "I will permit you to be released from the hospital, but only if you follow a few rules."

"What are the rules?" I asked.

"First, I want you to make sure you get plenty of rest and nourishment. I can tell that you're the type of young lady who will want to go out and be active; however, you need to give your body time to rest. I will prescribe you some pain medication that you can take in case you need it, but don't take it if it's not necessary. Second, since you won't be in the hospital for me to check on you daily, I would like you to come by my office at least every other day just to make sure you're still progressing."

"Am I allowed to drive?" I asked.

"I'd rather you not drive anywhere," Dr. Williams told me. "Get someone to bring you to the hospital to see me instead."

I sighed, "Okay, is there anything else?"

"No, that's all," he said smiling. Dr. Williams turned to Frank and Joe and said, "You boys make sure she does what she's supposed to now."

"Will do, doctor," Joe said with a little salute.

After signing a few forms and slowly changing back into normal clothes, I was free to go back to my temporary home. I put up a fuss when they brought the wheelchair around to take me out in. I thought it was stupid to be wheeled out when I can walk perfectly fine, but I didn't get my way this time. Frank seemed delighted that he got to wheel me out and I wanted to strangle Joe because he was taking pictures of me on his phone.

A short drive later and I had arrived back at the Cullen's home. I looked up at it feeling glad to be out of the hospital and surrounded by friends once again.

Frank helped me out of the car and guided me back in the house. When we entered the living room, I saw that everyone was still hanging around. When they saw us come in the door, all of them seemed to jump up and start talking at the same time.

Frank held up both hands to calm them down. "Okay guys, I'm going to take Nancy up to her room so she can get some sleep. Joe can tell you what happened if you all want to know. Just try not to bother Nancy until tomorrow."

I smiled at his thoughtfulness. "Guys, I'll just go ahead and say that I'm perfectly fine. I will have to agree with Frank on the sleeping part though. I'm pretty tired from everything that happened and my general lack of a good night's rest in the hospital."

"Good night's" were called out by all parties before I headed up the stairs with Frank following close behind me with his hand steadying me the entire way. He followed me into the bedroom and sat down while I went through and pulled out something comfortable to sleep in.

"Do you need any help with that?" Frank asked pointing toward my sleepwear.

"Are you offering?" I asked cheekily.

He became embarrassed at that comment, "I just thought I could go down and grab someone," he said with a little stutter.

I laughed, "I knew what you meant."

I watched the indignation on Frank's face and chuckled again before I walked into the bathroom to change clothes. While I was in the bathroom, I ended up taking a shower and brushing my teeth. It seemed like it had been so long since I felt really clean. Even though I would get a shower everyday at the hospital, it just isn't the same as having one where you're staying. I relished in the luxury of it all before finally coming out of the bathroom.

Frank was still sitting in the same chair as before waiting on me. He quickly got up and helped me over to the bed. It was kind of sweet when he tucked me in for the night.

Frank kissed my forehead before looking into my eyes and saying, "Sweet dreams."

"You too," I responded. "Good night, Frank."

"Good night."


	20. Chapter 20

A/N Okay, so I'm really sorry about not posting anything for such a long time. I didn't even realize how much time had gone by until the other day when I logged on. Anyway, things are now more or less back to normal with no big trips planned or weddings to go to anytime soon. Well, I take the wedding thing back because this year has been full of them. The good news is that I have the rest of the story planned out. I just have to write it carefully to make sure all of the pieces fall in place the way I want them to and to make it seem like a natural ending. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter and feel free to leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

**Frank's POV**

After leaving Nancy to sleep, I went downstairs and filled a glass full of water. I brought it back upstairs and left it by Nancy's bed. She had already fallen asleep, so I didn't say anything as I gazed at her. She was so beautiful and I refuse to let anything happen to her.

Tonight at the hospital had been another close call. Too close in my opinion. If Nancy hadn't been able to hold the nurse off for as long as she had, I might have lost her. I knew that we really needed to get to the bottom of this mystery fast before something else happens.

I wasn't as worried about Nancy getting hurt while she was staying here, mostly due to the number of people that hung around the house at any given time. However, I knew how she could be. Nancy will want to come investigate with me and Joe at the drop of a hat regardless of her physical condition or any other extenuating circumstances.

As I changed for bed, I tried to clear all of the thoughts out of my head. I was hoping to have a good night's rest and not be kept up by rampaging thoughts of someone trying to kill the love of my life.

As I laid down and tried to get comfortable in bed, I told myself that we were all safe here. I wasn't planning on letting down my guard, but I was fairly certain that nothing should happen to anyone while we were staying with the Cullens. Though that thought might not be completely positive, it was better than nothing and allowed me to finally drift off for a peaceful night of sleep.

Saturday brought with it a stormy day. All of us were gathered in the living room once again going over the documents Carlisle had provided. I think we all felt that there was something in them that we just weren't seeing. It was a frustrating task, but it had to be done unless we found something else that might give us better direction. For the time being, this had the most potential in providing a clue for us.

Nancy huffed loudly causing me to look up at her from where she was curled up on the sofa. "Maybe we should go back over the things we know about this case. I could use a break from looking at these spreadsheets," she said.

"Okay, we know that Jane was murdered by Felix," Joe began.

"But who murdered Felix?" Nancy asked.

"The only things we know about his murder is that Demetri's wallet was found near the scene of the crime and the type of gun used, which was a Remington 700," I responded. "That particular gun is widely used from most police all the way down to a hunter, so it's going to be hard to narrow that down."

"Has anybody checked up on the wallet yet?" Joe asked.

I shook my head. "I think Nancy was planning to before the accident, but since then hasn't really had the chance."

"In fact, I had forgotten all about checking out that lead with everything else that's happened," Nancy confirmed. "I should give the guy a call today and see if I can find anything out from him."

"Is there anything else we actually know?" Joe asked.

"I think everything else is still pretty speculative," Nancy answered. "I wish we had more to go on right now."

"We'll get there," I told her. "We just need to find the right thing that will break this case wide open."

Nancy stood up from her perch. "On that note, I think I'm going to make a phone call to Demetri and see if I can find out what he's been up to lately."

Joe sighed heavily. "Guess we'll get back to this stuff," he said gesturing to the papers spread out around him on the floor.

Joe and I were looking over the pages for a while before Nancy came back down the stairs. As she entered the room, I looked up and asked, "Did you find out anything?"

"Well, Demetri seems to have an alibi for the time of day when Felix was murdered," Nancy responded sitting down.

"Seems?" Joe asked quirking his eyebrow.

"Well, he told me that he was at his office working," Nancy told us. "I called the office once I got off the phone with him and talked to his secretary. She corroborates his story, but since she works for him, I suppose it's possible that she would also cover for him if he really wasn't there."

"Okay, so we can't officially rule him out of the game, but he might not be the killer," I spoke.

"Correct," Nancy confirmed.

"Did you learn anything else?" I asked.

"Nothing of interest," she said. "I did seem to catch his attention when I told him about his wallet being found near a crime scene."  
"What did he say?" Joe asked.

"Well, he didn't know how his wallet would have gotten there because he hasn't been in that area of town before," Nancy explained. "He seemed worried when he found out about it."

"I would be too if I were him," Joe said. "That bit of evidence links him to the crime even if we don't hard concrete proof yet."

"Anyway, let's get back to work," Nancy said grabbing a few of the pages I had laid down earlier.

Another hour passed us by and we were still trolling through the spreadsheets. I could feel my eyes getting blurry looking at everything over and over. I was about to suggest a break from all of this to get a snack or just do something else when Bella and Edward ventured into the room.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Bella asked.

"Slow," Joe groaned.

"Bella and I were discussing what kind of pattern you might be looking for and decided to take another look at the spreadsheets if you don't mind," Edward said.

"Help yourself," I told him. "I needed a break anyway.

We all gathered the sheets together and handed them over to Edward. He looked over the sheets for several minutes while Bella peered over his shoulder.

I leaned back against the part of the sofa I was seated on and watched them as they poured over the document in silence. I briefly glanced away and saw that Joe had shifted to lay flat on his back on the floor and had his eyes closed. I imagine that without much interruption, I would probably be hearing the sounds of a wood chipper starting up soon. Nancy, on the other hand, seemed to maintain her interest even though I could tell that she was getting tired.

"I've got it!" Edward exclaimed smacking his knee with his hand.

"Was it what we thought?" Bella asked him.

Edward nodded enthusiastically in response to her question. He looked up at all of us because Joe had jerked up when he heard the loud noise.

"It's a Fibonacci sequence," Edward stated.

He frowned when all three of us kept giving him blank stares.

"What's a Fibo-something sequence?" Joe asked grumpily.

Edward held up the spreadsheets. "The pattern they're using is a Fibonacci number sequence. Instead of increasing the number of rejected items by one or two a month, they're using this particular sequence," Edward explained.

"I've never heard of what you're talking about, but I'll give you the benefit of knowing what you're talking about," I said. "So what would be the reason for using a pattern like this one versus something else?"

"It's not as easily noticed as you guys all know," Edward replied. "It's a number sequence that increases gradually over time instead of doubling or tripling numbers like other patterns."

"If it's not easily noticed, how did you manage to figure it out?" Nancy asked frowning.

"We've been thinking about how to help you guys find this pattern since yesterday," Bella answered. "I was the one that actually brought up the possibility of it being a number sequence because I've always enjoyed doing things like that in my spare time. I know, I'm a dork," she said as she looked pointedly at Joe, who was probably about to make some snippy remark.

"Anyway, Bella got me thinking about number patterns, and we came down here to give it another shot to see if maybe she was onto something," Edward continued.

"And you found a pattern," I concluded.

"So how does this pattern work?" Nancy asked.

"Well, a Fibonacci number sequence works based on adding the two previous numbers in the sequence," Edward began explaining. "It can start with a zero, then one, then another one because the two numbers prior add up to one. The next number in the sequence would be two and so on."

"Wouldn't we have caught something like that?" Joe asked quirking his eyebrow.

Edward shook his head slightly. "I think the reason none of us noticed the pattern earlier is because whoever is behind all of this using the pattern every month. The pattern seems to be in effect every three months and as the number in the pattern increased, the rejected items were spread out over the three month period so that the company wouldn't end up with fifteen rejected batches one month and then have none the next month."

Joe whistled softly. "That's pretty sneaky."

"So the big question is who is behind all of this?" Nancy asked.

"I don't know, but I know of a way you might be able to find out," Bella spoke up.

We all turned our heads to look at her. I hid a grin as our focus caused her to blush.

"All of the rejected batches have to be shipped out on a truck to go to another location and be burned," Bella said. "I don't know how often these trucks leave the company, but I bet Carlisle would be aware of their schedule. You guys could follow the truck and see where it goes."

"That's actually not half-bad," I mused then grimaced as Edward shot a glare at me. I didn't mean that to sound insulting, but I guess it did.

"I'll go see if Carlisle knows anything about when they might be sending a truck," Edward said before getting up and heading in the direction of Carlisle's study.

"This could be a break in the case," Joe said looking at each of us.

A few minutes later, Carlisle joined us in the room. "You boys will be happy to know that there's a truck that leaves the company every other weekend to deliver the rejected products to a dump site where they are incinerated. This happens to be the day that the truck will be leaving, so you should be able to follow it if you can get there in the next half hour."

"Great!" I shouted standing up.

Nancy and Joe stood up with me and turned to follow me out the door.

I turned around suddenly and looked at Nancy. "Nan, I'm not letting you come along for this."

"Why not?" she retorted with her hands on her hips challenging me.

I placed my hands on her shoulders as I moved us away from everyone else. Joe had moved past me and had already made his way out of the door toward the car and was probably waiting for me to join him.

I looked directly into her eyes as I spoke, "You've just been released early from the hospital and are still recovering from your injuries. There is no way in hell that you can convince me to bring you along to investigate something."

"But you guys might need help," Nancy persisted.

"Look, I doubt we'll need any help with this," I told her. "All we're doing is tailing a truck to its drop-off point."

"If that's all you're doing, why can't I come along?" she asked triumphantly.

"I will not risk anything happening to you," I responded as calmly as possible even though she was driving me crazy with her arguing. Not that I can really blame her for that because I would almost certainly be the same way if the situation were reversed.

"Sure, it's supposed to be a simple task," I agreed, "but I will not run the risk of you being there and potentially getting hurt if something does happen."

Nancy finally realized that I wasn't going to let her talk me into her coming along. She tried to keep the pout off of her face, but I could still see it. I raised my hands from her shoulders up to cup her face and kissed her tenderly.

"Be careful," Nancy whispered as I stepped back from her.

I smiled at her before responding, "I'm always careful."


	21. Chapter 21

A/N Thank goodness for Labor Day weekend and a little extra time. As usual, I didn't get nearly enough done that I had hoped to do, but at least I have another update to the story. Hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One**

**Frank's POV**

I barely had gotten the passenger door of the car closed before Joe was speeding down the driveway on the way to Volturi Pharmaceuticals.

"Do you really think Nancy is going to stay?" Joe asked.

I sighed, "She said she would."

Joe gave me a piercing look. "Okay, I hope she will stay there and not go off and do something foolhardy," I admitted.

"You do realize that it's practically impossible for her to actually stay in one place without working on the case," Joe said.

"Yes, but right now I would much rather focus on us following the truck to the disposal company," I told Joe.

I was glad when Joe remained quiet. I didn't need him adding to concerns with regards to Nancy. I focused my thoughts on the case and our potential lead of what was actually happening to the rejected batches at the disposal company.

It wasn't long before Joe had pulled over near Volturi Pharmaceuticals. Carlisle had informed us before we left about what kind of truck we were looking for. We decided that it would be less noticeable if we wait to start following the vehicle until after it had left the company premises. Considering that we were still unsure how many people might be involved in all of this, it seemed the safest route to take without being noticed by unwanted eyes.

We were sitting in the car for about twenty minutes before we saw a truck that met Carlisle's description pull out of the gate.

"Do you think that's the one?" Joe asked.

"It meets the description Carlisle gave me so we might as well give it a shot," I replied.

Joe allowed several cars to pass before we pulled out and began following the truck through town. Neither of us was really all that concerned about the truck noticing us following it through the congested streets of Chicago. There was too much traffic around for someone to really pay attention to a particular car in the mix.

We followed the truck through traffic for about fifteen minutes before it began to leave the bustling city behind. Since the cars were lessening, Joe allowed more space to fall in between us. It was easy enough for us to keep track of a large truck, so the additional space didn't make much of a difference for the two of us.

"Where do you think this guy is going?" Joe finally asked after we had been silent for about thirty minutes.

"Well, I guess it's safest to incinerate stuff far away from large populations," I responded. "Since we're starting to get into the middle of nowhere, maybe we'll be coming up on it pretty soon."

"I just hope the driver doesn't notice us following him," Joe replied.

I nodded in agreement. There had been very little traffic for the past five minutes on the road we were driving down. If this guy was trained to look for tails, it was almost certain that he would have spotted us by now. I was hoping that he wasn't paying attention and we could continue to go unnoticed.

We drove for another ten minutes before I saw the truck's brake lights come on. Joe slowed the car down gradually as we watched the truck turn into the short drive for the disposal company. Joe pulled the car over on the side of the road and put the hazard lights on.

"What did you do that for?" I asked.

Joe shrugged. "We're out in the middle of nowhere. I figure that flashing lights might at least make it seem as if we're have car trouble or something instead of sneaking around."

"If you say so," I replied.

We got out of the vehicle and walked toward the entrance that was several hundred feet from where we had pulled off. By now, I think we had both decided that we were going to try to see as much as we could and just play it by ear if things got hairy.

The company had a chain-link fence that lined the outer edges of it. As we neared the entrance, I noticed that there wasn't a gate or anything to keep people from getting inside.

"Nice security they have here," I commented.

"Yeah, anybody could walk on in," Joe said before walking inside the fence.

I chuckled softly as I gave a quick look around to make sure no one was watching before following Joe in. I looked around the premises as we headed in the direction the truck had taken. There were several large buildings that seemed to be made of concrete. The facility also had a large structure that looked like it might be an incinerator that was located near a man-made body of water.

We crept around one of the large buildings and saw the where the truck was parked at a loading dock. There were a couple of men in dirty coveralls using forklifts to unload the truck of the many pallets of material that it had been carrying. The driver was standing nearby observing them unload.

A few minutes later, the truck seemed to be unloaded and another man walked out carrying a clipboard in his hand to meet the driver. This man was short and pudgy with oily black hair. He was wearing a brightly coloured button down shirt with pink flamingos on it. There were several gold chains hanging around his neck.

"Man, that guy really needs to get some fashion tips," Joe said softly with a shake of his head.

"What, you don't want me to buy you a shirt with pink flamingos on it for Christmas?" I asked amused.

"Shut up," Joe replied. "I might just get you a bunch of gold chains to wear around your neck. I bet Nancy will dig that."

I scowled at him before returning my attention to the two people. The oil-slick of a man, who might be the manager of the company, was given some paperwork from the truck driver. We watched as the manager signed the paperwork and returned a yellow copy to the driver. With a friendly wave, the truck driver got back into his vehicle and started it up once again. He slowly pulled away from the unloading dock and travelled back down the same route he had taken when he entered.

"Well, everything looked okay to me," I said to Joe.

"It seemed like a pretty legit transaction," Joe agreed.

We had just about decided to turn around and head back to the car when another truck drove in. It stopped in the same spot the previous vehicle had been in and the driver got out. This truck driver didn't have the clean look of the previous driver. Instead, this guy was wearing tattered clothing and seemed to be covered in tattoos.

We watched from the cover of the building we were next to as the truck driver walked over to the manager of the disposal company. The two of them talked for a minute before the manager ordered a couple of guys to load the back of the new truck with all of the product we had just seen arrive. The truck driver then handed over a wad of money before going toward the rear of the truck and observing it being loaded.

Ten minutes later, the truck was loaded to capacity with the products from Volturi Pharmaceuticals. Joe and I watched as the truck driver got back into his rig and started the engine before heading out. The manager gave a quick wave before heading back in the direction of a building that probably served as an office.

"What do you think we just witnessed?" I asked Joe.

"I don't know," Joe said with a shake of his head, "but those drugs are definitely not getting destroyed here."

"I'm thinking we need to follow them," I told Joe.

"I think you're right," Joe agreed.

We hurried back to the side of the road where we had left the car trying to keep cover as much as possible. I was pretty sure that no one on the premises of the disposal company would actually be looking for anything out of the ordinary and see us, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

By the time we were inside the car, Joe turned the ignition and quickly turned the car around in the direction the second truck had taken. It was apparently heading back into town, but neither of us knew where the final location might end up being. Joe gunned the engine of the car to try to catch up to the truck. I was hoping that we had been quick enough getting back to the vehicle that the truck wasn't too far ahead of us.

A couple of minutes later as we were nearing the city limits, we managed to catch up to the truck. The truck passed through several intersections in town while Joe slowed down to allow more space between the two of us. The truck made a right-hand turn that headed toward the warehouse district of town. Joe followed as closely as we could safely allow without running the risk of being spotted.

"Where do you think this guy is going?" Joe asked.

Before I had a chance to respond, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that it was Nancy calling.

"Hey Nan, everything okay?" I asked slightly concerned.

"Everything's fine here," Nancy's clear voice answered. "I was just checking in on you. Hope it's not a bad time."

"Well, the transfer of product to the disposal company seems okay, but shortly after that truck left, another one arrived and loaded the same drugs into it," I told her. "Joe and I are following that truck right now."  
"Where's the truck headed?" Nancy asked.

"We're not sure of the final destination yet, but we're currently driving through the warehouse district," I answered.

"Hey, the truck's slowing down," Joe pointed out.

Joe slowed the car down even further as we watched the truck pull into a small alleyway between two abandoned-looking warehouses.

"Hey Nan, I'm going to let you go," I told her. "The truck pulled into an alleyway, so Joe and I are going to go check it out."

"Be careful," Nancy replied.

"Don't worry, we'll be careful," I told her while shooting a glare at Joe, who was snickering at my end of the conversation.

I quickly hung up the phone and put it back in my pocket.

"You are so whipped," Joe said shaking his head.

"Shut up," I retorted.

Joe chuckled softly again as he drove past the alleyway. I watched as Joe drove around the block and parked the car out of sight from the warehouse. We quietly walked in the direction of the alleyway where the truck had entered. We were hoping to enter the alleyway from the opposite end and see if the truck was unloading the drugs into the warehouse like we suspected.

A few minutes later we reached the alley and peered around carefully. The truck driver along with a couple of other burly men were unloading the drugs from the back of the truck and hauling them inside the warehouse.

Joe made some hand motions to indicate us moving closer. We crept along the narrow alley trying to stay in the shadows and not gather any notice from the men. We moved cautiously forward to watch as they unloaded the truck in the hopes of getting a better look at who the men were so we could identify them later.

The men finished unloading the truck and the truck driver got back inside and drove away. The two burly men who remained ambled back inside and closed the door.

I looked at Joe and indicated that we should move forward to see if we could see anything from one of the grimy windows near that doorway. We crept forward and were peering through the dirty glass when I suddenly felt something prod me in the back.

"Don't make a noise and you might not get hurt," a low voice said from behind.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N Just when you think you're going to get back on track and complete a story, your computer gets hijacked by a family member. Such is life. Hope you guys enjoy and I apologize for the slow updates.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

**Nancy's POV**

Even though Frank didn't want me to come along with them while they looked into the delivery truck that took the controlled products to the disposal plant, I refused to stay behind and do nothing.

After I watched their car drive off from one of the windows in the front of the house, I waited ten minutes or so for them to get a decent distance from the house. Then, I went off in search of the one person in this house that would probably be up for some sleuthing.

I found him spread out along a sofa in the library reading a comic book.

"Hey Jake," I greeted.

Jake put the comic book down and looked over. "Hey Nancy. What's up?"

"I was wondering if you might be up for a little sleuthing?" I asked.

Jake's eyes widened and he sat up quickly. "I'd do anything to get out of this house. As much as I love the way everyone's being so nice to me, I still feel like I'm in prison. What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Well, Frank and Joe went out to follow a lead on the disposal company that Volturi Pharmaceuticals uses. I thought that while they were out doing that, maybe we could do something constructive for the case as well," I replied.

"Such as?" Jake prodded.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Frank and Joe suspect that the product on the truck isn't making it to the final location at the disposal company. While they might be right, I thought we could get ahead of the game by also looking at where the product might go if it does get to the disposal company," I explained.

"It would have to be transferred somewhere else," Jake said. "There's too many witnesses that would see if it wasn't actually getting destroyed."

"So since you know this town better, where do you think it would go?" I asked.

"Well, from working in the security department at the plant, I know that the disposal company is outside the city limits in a more rural setting. I've actually met a couple of the drivers for the company before and none of them strike me as the shady type. I hate to make assumptions, but if I went along with your theory, then my bet would be they would transfer the shipment back into town," Jake answered.

"Where in town?" I asked.

"If it were me, I would hide it in one of the abandoned warehouses near the edge of town," Jake said. "There's still just enough businesses open in that section for delivery trucks to go unnoticed, but not so much traffic that something illegal would be caught."

"Well, then I'd say we have a heading," I replied with a smile.

I went to grab my keys and bag while Jake went downstairs to wait for me. A few minutes later, we were out the door and driving down the road in my car in the direction of the warehouse district. Since it was on the far edge of town in comparison with the Cullen's house, it took us a while before we reached it.

"So what do you want to do now?" Jake asked as we entered the warehouse district.

"I guess we can just drive around the area and look to see if we notice anything," I mused.

After driving around a few blocks and not seeing anything suspicious, I began wondering what Frank and Joe might have come up with. I pulled out my phone and dialed Frank's number.

"Hey Nan, everything okay?" Frank asked in a concerned voice.

I didn't want to give anything away about what I was doing, so I kept my answer generic. "Everything's fine here," I answered. "I was just checking in on you. Hope it's not a bad time."

Frank didn't question my response at all, which made me grin. "Well, the transfer of product to the disposal company seems okay, but shortly after that truck left, another one arrived and loaded the same drugs into it," Frank responded. "Joe and I are following that truck right now."  
I perked up at that. Maybe I was on the right track after all if another truck picked up the product from the disposal company. I looked over at Jake, who was giving me a questioning look. I gave him a thumbs-up sign to indicate to him that we were going in the right direction.

"Where's the truck headed?" I asked hoping to get a better idea of the location since I was still driving around various portions of the warehouse district.

"We're not sure of the final destination yet, but we're currently driving through the warehouse district," Frank answered.

There was a slight pause in the conversation before Frank came back, "Hey Nan, I'm going to let you go," he said. "The truck pulled into an alleyway, so Joe and I are going to go check it out."

"Be careful," I replied.

"Don't worry, we'll be careful," Frank replied before hanging up the phone.

I put my phone on the console near me as I continued driving down the streets.

"What did you find out?" Jake asked.

"Well, another truck picked up the delivery from the disposal company while Frank and Joe was there scouting the place out. They've followed the truck to an alleyway somewhere around here, so we need to figure out where exactly they are," I told him.

"I guess you couldn't exactly ask for some street names, could you?" Jake asked with a wry grin.

I looked over and grimaced. "Yeah, that probably wouldn't be conducive to me staying put and out of any possible danger."

"So, since you're from around here, do you know of any good places we should drive around to search?" I asked Jake.

"Well, about three more blocks over, this area becomes a higher mix of abandoned warehouses instead of businesses. The traffic is also lighter because of that, so it might be a good start," Jake mused.

I drove in the direction Jake pointed out and we both began looking around the area closely. I was hoping to see the alleyway Frank had mentioned that held the delivery truck. The next best thing would probably be to see any sign of Frank or Joe.

Of course, that did pose the problem of them seeing me out and about when I was supposed to be back at the Cullen's house. Joe wouldn't have a problem with it, but Frank would most likely be irritated that I didn't listen to him. Although, really he should know me better than that by now. I will always go chasing after a good mystery instead of sitting at home with nothing to do.

I had driven around several blocks and neither of us had spotted anything of interest. I was beginning to think that we wouldn't be able to find them within the city maze of streets and alleys.

"Wait!" Jake exclaimed.

I slowed down and looked at him. "You saw something?" I asked.

"Yeah, go around the corner and we'll backtrack on foot," Jake told me.

I pulled the car around the nearest corner and parked it on the side of the street. It was looking a little out of place in this area because the streets were more deserted. Jake and I got out of the car and I locked it while following behind him.

"I saw the guys heading down this alley up here," Jake told me quietly.

I looked around the area, but didn't see any signs of living people around. Granted, I knew that within these warehouses, there could be anyone observing us from a location we couldn't spot easily. I was hoping that Jake and I would just look like a couple having a stroll down the street even if the street was in an area of town that you wouldn't find many people just walking around in their free time.

We were just a few feet away from an alleyway when Jake signaled with his hand that it was the one he had seen Frank and Joe head down. The two of us slowed even further before turning the corner and peering down the alleyway to see what was going on.

I covered my mouth and held in the gasp as I saw a man holding a gun come up behind Frank and Joe. I couldn't hear what was said, but soon I witnessed both of them being herded into the building by the armed man.

"I think we need to call the police," Jake whispered to me once everyone had disappeared from our view.

I nodded silently and pulled out my cell phone. I dialed the number and held it to my ear waiting for the line to be answered.

"Officer Turner," the man answered.

"I think we need your help," I spoke.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N Things are heating up, so to speak. Hope everyone enjoys. Feel free to leave a review.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-three**

**Nancy's POV**

Jake and I waited for Officer Turner to arrive near where I had parked my car. I didn't want us to obviously be standing next to a building that contained at least one and possibly more armed men inside just waiting to sneak a peak at us.

Officer Turner pulled up in an unmarked vehicle less than five minutes after I called him.

"I'm glad you could get here so quickly," I commented once he stepped out of the car.

"I was lucky enough to be in the area when you called, so it didn't take me that long to get over here," he replied. "So, let me get this straight. You two were sneaking around that warehouse over there and saw Frank and Joe Hardy being led inside by a man with a gun?"

I nodded, "That's what we saw happen."

"I thought you would have brought more cops as backup with you?" Jake asked.

"I wanted to make sure of what was going on first before I called in for backup," Officer Turner replied. "As busy as our department can get at times, I didn't want to be herding them over here for no reason."

"Frank and Joe's lives are at risk," I snapped angrily. "That should be reason enough."

Officer Turner held a hand up to me as if trying to calm me down. "Regardless, I wanted to be on the scene first to check out your claims before I called more officers in to deal with the situation."

I was peeved that the detective standing in front of me wouldn't believe our claims, but I somehow managed to hold my tongue and not lash out at him.

Jake and I led Officer Turner to the building that Frank and Joe were led into and then left him to search around the building to see what he could find out. I was hoping that it wouldn't take him too long before he would call in for backup.

"How do you think that douche is going to find out what's going on inside the building by walking around the thing?" Jake asked me.

"What?" I asked puzzled.

"The windows all around the building are so grimy from not being cleaned in fifty years that you can't see anything through them," Jake explained. "Frank and Joe could be standing right in front of one and you wouldn't be able to see them."

"Then he would have to go inside," I thought out loud.

"And since there is at least one armed guy inside, I would imagine that could be a problem," Jake reminded me.

"We need to warn him," I said starting to move in the direction Turner had taken.

"Nancy," Jake said grabbing a hold of my upper arm to keep me from straying too far away, "I don't trust him."

"He's a cop," I said to Jake.

I felt I had a good sense of judging people's characters and wasn't concerned about Officer Turner. He wasn't a shining star by any means, but I didn't think he would stoop to criminal behaviour.

As if guessing what was going through my head, Jake spoke, "Look, I know you may be able to judge people better than me because you've been solving mysteries for a long time, but I still don't think that everything adds up here."

I had to admit that at least Jake didn't have a silly reason behind what he said. "Then what do you suggest we do?" I asked.

"I think we need to call the cops in," Jake proposed.

Before I could say anything to Jake, I looked away at the sound of approaching footsteps. Officer Turner was walking back toward us with a grim expression on his face.

"What did you find?" I asked walking toward him with Jake standing behind me.

"I had to go inside because I couldn't see anything much through the windows on that place. The inside wasn't much better. Looked like it hasn't been cleaned in ages," he spoke. "I didn't see any sign of Frank or Joe inside the place, but there was some scuff marks on the floor inside that could be a sign of a struggle."

"We would have seen them leave the building," I argued.

"If they actually went inside that building, they could have left by a different exit," Officer Turner suggested. "The building has multiple doors."

I was tired of him treating us like we were stupid. I would almost rather have his lewd advances over this.

"I want to go inside," I stated firmly.

"Why?" Officer Turner asked in a surprised voice.

"I need to see for myself what you claim to have seen," I told him angrily.

"Nancy," Jake said softly from behind.

"What?" I asked as I angrily turned around to see what he wanted.

Jake knew that I was mad and raised his hands up in the air in surrender. I couldn't handle dealing with two men that I was fed up with when all I wanted was to make sure Frank and Joe were okay. I couldn't get the sight of a man holding a gun on them out of my head and no one would be able to talk me out of checking everything out.

"Okay, follow me," Officer Turner told me with a heavy sigh.

I walked behind him and heard the footsteps that indicated Jake was coming with us. I knew he had his reservations about the whole situation, and while I respected what he thought, it wasn't going to change my actions this time. I knew that I was probably being a bit foolhardy, but when my companions could be in danger, I was going to do whatever I could to help.

I followed Officer Turner until he reached the same door that I had seen Frank and Joe ushered into. The detective paused in front of the door and turned to glance at me as if measuring to see how much I really wanted to go through with this. I gave him a silent nod of my head to confirm that we should follow through. Officer Turner then opened the door and walked inside.

I followed him inside the warehouse with Jake still at my back. I took a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dim lighting. I frowned as I looked around the vacant room we were standing in because if the building had lights on inside, then someone must be using it. I couldn't understand why Turner didn't call for backup. It was clear to me that Jake and I weren't crazy and someone was definitely using this place for something.

I crept behind the detective as silently as possible because even though he didn't see anyone in the place, I preferred to be cautious. I grimaced at the fact that Officer Turner didn't seem to care about how much noise he was making. His footsteps echoed throughout the warehouse. There was no doubt in my mind that if anyone was still left inside, they would definitely know that someone was in here with them now.

I glanced back quickly at Jake, who was moving quietly behind me. I could tell from the look he gave me that he was unimpressed with the detective we had in our company. It made me feel a flicker of regret for being so stubborn and not listening to Jake when he was trying to tell me earlier that we should just call and request additional cops ourselves. That lingering bad feeling Jake had mentioned earlier was growing in my gut, but I was too far into this situation to turn around.

"Are you okay?" Jake whispered in my ear causing me to jump.

"I'm fine," I whispered back.

I noticed that in my silent contemplation, Officer Turner had gone on ahead of us and we were left alone in the same room we entered from the doorway. I shook my nerves away as I remembered that I was here to check for any clues as to where Frank and Joe might have gone since the detective didn't find them in here earlier when he was checking the place out.

I moved through the vacant room toward a doorway that was up ahead. As I entered the next room, I gasped.

To my right were Frank and Joe Hardy and they were both tied up to two chairs that stood in the center of the room. Their mouths were taped shut preventing them from making any sounds. I looked around wildly for a moment wondering where Officer Turner had gone off to. There was no way he could have possibly overlooked something like this.

Those thoughts were pushed toward the back of my mind as I saw Frank's widened eyes. I rushed over to his side and started trying to undo the knots tied in various strands of rope as quickly as I could.

"Frank, it's okay," I told him quickly and quietly as I began untying the ropes binding his wrists together behind the chair. "Officer Turner is with us and we're going to get you out of here."

I heard a muffled response coming from him but didn't stop to take off the tape keeping his mouth shut. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jake working on getting Joe loose.

Whoever tied these things knew what they were doing. I had barely managed to get one knot undone when I heard footsteps approaching the room. I glanced at Jake, who was already looking toward me with a concerned expression on his face. I was pretty sure it was Officer Turner, but something could have happened to him during the few minutes that we've been separated.

There wasn't exactly a place to hide in this big, open room, so I went for the standby of ducking behind Frank's chair. I saw that Jake was doing the same thing behind Joe. The only problem with this situation is that it was pretty hard for me to hide behind a chair, much less someone as large as Jake. I knew that if it wasn't the detective coming toward us, we would definitely be in trouble.

I let out a breath of relief as I saw Officer Turner round the corner into the room.

"Good work Nancy," Officer Turner congratulated. "You found the boys."

"Come over here and help us," I told him as I looked back down to continue working on Frank's knots.

"I don't believe that will do," Officer Turner replied.

I looked up and stared at the detective, who was now holding a gun in his hand pointed toward us. I realized then that I had made a potentially fatal mistake in letting my feelings for Frank take over and keep me from making solid decisions. Jake was right all along and Officer Turner couldn't be trusted.

"I want both of you to slowly back away from the chairs with your hands up," Turner ordered.

I stood up slowly and saw out of my peripheral vision that Jake was doing the same things. I contemplated what I might be able to do in order to distract Turner long enough for us to escape, but I knew it was going to be hard to accomplish with Frank and Joe still tied up.

"No funny business, Miss Drew," Turner scolded. "Roger! Larry! Get in here!" he hollered.

Two men in their late thirties came into the room quickly. I recognized one of them as the one that had trained the gun on Frank and Joe earlier. I held back the sigh as I realized that we were now dealing with three armed men and two of us were tied to chairs with no way to escape.

"Tie those two up," Turner ordered.

"But there's no more chairs to tie them to," one of the men told him.

"Then just let them sit on the floor," Turner barked. "I don't care as long as they're tied up tight and can't escape."

One of the men left the room only to return a few minutes later with a large quantity of rope. I looked over to Jake, who eyed my nervously. The man handed some of the rope over to the other guy before walking toward me. I wanted to do everything in my power to get free of this situation, but Turner was still holding a gun on all of us. I knew that even if I managed to distract one of his henchmen, he could still shoot any one of us and that was something that I couldn't allow to happen.

The man by the name of Larry grabbed my arm roughly and jerked me away from where I was standing behind Frank's chair. He hauled me at least eight feet away and began tying up my hands behind my back. I watched as Jake was given the same treatment.

After tying my hands together, Larry pushed me down onto the floor and began tying my ankles together. I winced as he tied the cords as tight together as his strength would allow. They were already cutting into my skin and even though I had tried my little trick of weaving my fingers together to give myself a little extra room to maneuver my hands, Larry didn't fall for it.

Once the men were finished securing us, they stepped away and Turner walked over and gave a good tug on each of our knots to check the work.

"You know, Nancy," he said into my ear, "it's a shame that you had to keep digging your nose into places it doesn't belong in. We could have had such a beautiful relationship."

"I would never date a creep like you," I hissed.

"You are so feisty," Turner said with a smirk. "I guess this would be the part where you ask your little questions."

"What are you planning to do with us?" Jake blurted out.

Turner looked over at him and smiled sinisterly. "I prefer to keep that as a little surprise, but it won't be too much longer before you'll find out first-hand."

I wanted to keep Turner talking for as long as I could. I wasn't confident in my ability to get out of these knots that were binding me, but I needed to be able to work on them for as long as possible with the hope of getting them loose. Besides, the longer he talks, the longer we have before he does something truly despicable to us.

I decided just to go out on a whim and asked, "Where's Caius?"

I could tell he didn't expect that question because his eyes widened for a second before the calm facade came back.

I heard a light clapping and some more footsteps come closer. Another man entered the room that I almost immediately recognized. He was the face of the other man in the picture with Turner that was kept at the police station.

The man was tall with blonde hair that seemed a little too blonde to be a natural hair colour. He was wearing an expensive looking suit with dress shoes.

"Very good deduction, Miss Drew," the man spoke.

"Caius," Turner said in a warning voice.

Caius waved a hand Turner's way as if dismissing him. He then stepped forward to get closer to me, although still well out of range.

"What I would like to know is how you decided I was behind all of this?" Caius asked pleasantly.

I hesitated a moment in deciding how to answer his question. Just in case something happened to us, I didn't want to incriminate anyone else in this ordeal.

I looked up at him and shrugged innocently. "It was mostly a guess. I wagered that you would be the most likely culprit behind the drug ring due to your ranking position in the company. However, I would love to know exactly how you came up with this scheme."

Caius smiled proudly. "That is quite the story. I guess I can give you the shortened version of what happened. Several years ago I attempted to get Aro to promote me to a position with more leadership."

"But I thought that you were already pretty high ranking within the company," I interrupted.

"I suppose I am, but Marcus is technically even higher than myself," Caius replied. "I wanted Aro to urge Marcus to retire so that I could grab that position. Once I was there, I would be within arm's reach of taking over the company should anything ever happen to Aro."

"Of course, Aro didn't see eye to eye with my thoughts," Caius continued. "He felt that the positions we currently held were what was best for the company. I might not have let him know how angry I was with his decision, but I went home that night and complained to my nephew. He was the one to suggest that I could interfere with the company business from behind the scenes without anyone noticing it. I would be able to split the profits with my nephew and help to ruin Aro's company in the long run. It was a possibility I couldn't refuse."

"Then Jane found out about what was going on and you had her killed," I said.

"It was a shame to have to do that, but I couldn't have questions arise before the time was right," Caius confirmed.

"But Felix messed up and didn't manage to kill the witnesses to the crime," I pointed out.

Caius sighed heavily. "When I found out from my nephew about Isabella Swan and Jacob witnessing the events of that night, I knew that we would have to play things very carefully for a while. It was an unexpected complication when Felix started losing his nerve."

"He was a liability that we couldn't afford," Turner interjected. "It was a good thing I followed you the day you went to talk to him. Felix might have told you guys everything if I hadn't have put a stop to it."

"You killed him," I stated. "What about Demetri's wallet that Frank and I found near the scene of the crime?"

Turner waved his hand in impatience. "When I found out that Demetri had been hired to find the Swan girl, I figured he might be handy later on. I snatched his wallet one day when he was visiting me at the police station and then I luckily had it available to place at the crime to point the finger in the opposite direction."

"So it really was just a coincidence that he didn't have an alibi for that time," I spoke, almost to myself.

"I've known of Demetri for years since he's from these parts," Turner told me. "It wasn't surprising to see you go barking up the wrong tree when it comes to him. He's always been a little crazy when he's investigating something. You probably could have learned something from him. He tends to be right about every case he's worked on."

"What about the car accident?" I asked angrily.

"That was your final warning to stay away from the case," Caius spoke up firmly.

"You almost killed us," I almost yelled.

Turner just shrugged indifferently. "It really wouldn't have been a loss to us."

"When Renata told us about the papers Carlisle had given you, we knew we'd have to get you out of the way soon," Caius said.

"Caius, I think we've said enough about all of this," Turner finally said.

Caius nodded, "I agree. It's a shame it had to end this way, but a man like me couldn't possibly go to jail."

Turner nodded to the two flunkies who had tied me and Jake up. They went out of the room only to return with cans of gasoline. I had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen and looked over to Jake. I could see a mixture of anger and fear in his eyes.

The men dumped out the gasoline all around the four of us as well as making sure to douse the walls all around the room. I could tell by the old structure of this building that it would probably go up like a fireball if a match was lit.

"Oh, one last thing," Turner said when the men had finally emptied all of the gasoline that was in the cans. He walked over to Frank and Joe and ripped off the tape that was around their mouths. "I figured that you guys might want to wish each other farewell while you have the chance."

With that, Caius and Turner walked out of the room. One of the men took a lighter out of his pocket and flicked it to produce a small flame. My stomach was uneasy with the latest developments in our situation.

Out of all of the cases I have worked on in the past, there have been numerous times that I've come close to not making it out alive. This was the one time that I was really unsure about our chances of getting out. I hated that I brought this down on Jake, who was just trying to help. No one knew where we were, so we weren't going to have a rescue party at just the right moment come in and save the day for us.

Frank couldn't turn his head enough to see where I was on the floor behind him, but I knew that I had to tell him something if this was going to be our last moments together.

"Frank, I love you," I said trying to keep the tears from falling.

"I love you too, Nan," Frank replied back in a scratchy voice.

With that, I watched as the man flicked the lighter over to a nearby corner and the room caught on fire.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N We're coming toward the end of the story and I really do have to apologize for the lengthy delays in getting this thing updated. The past couple chapters have been a little temperamental in my head, so I'm glad I finally got everything straightened out. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and feel free to leave me a review.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-four**

**Frank's POV**

I wish I could say that I couldn't believe Nancy would end up in this situation with the rest of us, but who was I kidding? Of course, she would get out of the house as soon as Joe and I left and try to investigate the case. It did surprise me that she ended up on this side of town with Jake. While I was glad that she was that intuitive to end up at the right place without having to follow people around like Joe and I, I was also really upset because of the position we were now in.

I couldn't even see her face because she was tied up on the floor somewhere behind me. It was nice to get Caius and the detective to confess to their crimes, but we didn't have any solid evidence like actually having the confession recorded. Even if we did, it would probably go up in flames just like the building we were in.

I could feel myself want to tear up from the torture of knowing that this was probably going to be our final moments with one another. I couldn't even see Nancy's face, which was killing me. When I heard her tell me that she loved me, I replied in kind with the same sentiments.

I would love to truly express all of my feelings for her right now, but it just didn't seem like the right time. First, there was the fact that we weren't exactly alone with one another. An audience comprising of my brother and Jake might not seem like much, but it still kept me from wanting to share my adoration for Nancy in front of them. My other reason for not wanting to get too sentimental was that it almost felt like we were giving up. Even though I couldn't see a way for us to get out of this situation, I just couldn't let myself give up all hope in the matter. I knew I needed to stay strong for everyone, for Nancy, so that we might be able to truly be together again.

The flames from the fire were flickering closer to us and the smoke was getting worse in the room. I was trying to breathe in shallow breaths with the hope that the smoke wouldn't cause any coughing fits any time soon. I wanted to be able to put forth my best effort in getting my hands untied and breaking down into a coughing fit just wasn't going to work.

Luckily, Nancy had loosened the bonds a little during her short period of time that she had worked on them before they were caught. I could feel the ropes cutting into my skin as I maneuvered my wrists and fingers in various directions to try to untie the knots.

"Hey, I've got a knife in my back pocket that would help us out if someone could get to it," Jake offered.

"Hang on, I'll try to get over to you and see if I can reach it," Nancy told him.

I could hear Nancy scooting across the floor away from me in the direction Jake's voice had come from. It was good to know that he had a knife in his pocket that hadn't been found earlier, but taking a look around the part of the room that I could actually see made me wonder if it was going to get us all out safely.

"How are you coming over there?" Joe asked me.

I turned my head to see him struggling trying to get his hands free. "I might be able to get my hands free in about ten minutes," I said.

"I doubt we have ten minutes," Joe shot back grimly.

"No, you might have five at best," a new voice spoke up from the doorway.

Joe and I both looked up quickly and barely recognized the man standing in front of us. Demetri was standing there wearing some kind of breathing mask like a fire fighter might have that covered his entire face. He was also carrying a large fire extinguisher.

"Demetri!" Nancy exclaimed from behind me. "How did you end up here?"

"Long story," Demetri stated quickly before using the nozzle on his fire extinguisher to fight back the flames that were now coming entirely too close to my legs for me to feel any comfort.

I saw Jake using the knife on Joe's bonds to get him free while Nancy was back to trying to help untie my hands with only her fingers. I knew that she would be able to untie them a lot easier than I would, but I didn't think it would be fast enough for all of us to get out alive.

"Nan, just get out of the building," I told her solemnly.

"No, I won't leave you behind," she replied and I could tell that she was probably shaking her head adamantly at me.

"Here, this will probably help," Demetri told us before tossing a pocket knife in our direction.

Nancy caught it firmly in her hand and quickly opened it up to use on the ropes binding my hands together. I felt the blade of the knife cutting through the rope quickly. I saw Joe stand up a moment later when Jake had cut off all the rope binding his hands and legs together. Based on the loosening of the rope around my wrists, I was pretty sure that Nancy would have me free quickly.

Demetri stayed nearby using his fire extinguisher to put the flames at bay as they neared us. I jumped up quickly when the rope was finally cut through on my wrists. I turned around just enough to grab the knife out of Nancy's hands and viciously cut through the rope that was tying my ankles together.

"Nancy, get out of here," I told her while sawing through the rope.

"I'm not leaving you in here," she replied with her hands on her hips.

I frowned at how stubborn she was being. I just hoped that she wasn't going to end up making a decision that resulted in her own undoing. I was vaguely aware of Joe and Jake hurrying out of the doorway toward an exit.

I managed to cut through the last of the rope around my ankles just as a wooden beam overhead came crashing down a little too close to us for safety. I grabbed Nancy's hand and hauled us out of the door following closely behind Demetri, who was still spraying all the nearby flames in sight with his fire extinguisher.

The smoke was so thick within the building that it was becoming hard to see anything around us. Nancy and I were bent over at the waist trying to hurry toward the exit while staying as low to the ground as possible. I could hear Joe and Jake shouting our names out from somewhere in front of us, so I used that as a compass to help guide us toward the doorway leading to fresh air.

We stumbled out of the doorway seconds later coughing heavily. All of us walked a short distance away to get further away from the burning building as we breathed in fresh air and tried to halt our coughing fit.

Joe's chest was heaving and he was bent over with his hands on his knees. His looked up at the three of us as we ventured toward him and Jake. "Thanks man, that was a close one," he told Demetri.

"No problem," Demetri replied. "I was glad to be able to help."

"What brought you out here in the first place?" I asked him.

"Funny you should ask that," he said as the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. "This all started with Miss Drew calling me the other day asking about my whereabouts on the day Felix was murdered and mentioning my missing wallet turning up at the scene."

"How did my phone call change anything?" Nancy asked.

"Your phone call made me realize that I was being played and I don't let anyone get the best of me," Demetri said with a frown. "I was pretty sure that for my wallet to end up at the scene of a murder that it had to have been planted there because I hadn't been in that area during my initial visit to find Miss Swan. I might not have told you on the phone, but I was fairly certain that Turner had somehow managed to snag my wallet from me during one of my visits to the station."

"Why would you suspect him in the first place?" Jake asked. "I mean, I know he's guilty of it all now, but I'm curious as to why you might have thought something was out of the ordinary before."

"I've actually known the guy for a few years," Demetri confessed. "While I had never seen him do anything illegal, he always struck me as the type that might resort to questionable measures to get the job done."

"So you didn't trust him," I spoke up.

"No," Demetri confirmed with a shake of his head. "I never trusted him, but I've worked with him before when I needed additional information for a case I was working on."

"When I saw that Renata had gotten arrested on the news, I knew that you guys might need some help," Demetri continued. "I'm not really the type to work with a group, so I just stayed out of your way and did some snooping behind the scenes in places you might not think to look at."

"So you knew about Renata's connection to Caius?" Nancy asked.

Demetri nodded. "Like I said, I worked with Turner on occasion. I always like to know who I'm dealing with, so I found out a lot about Turner back then, which led to me knowing a good bit about the Volturi family. Renata is the type of person who is extremely loyal to her family. When she saw that you were becoming a threat, she did what she thought was best in taking care of the problem."

"Except she didn't manage to take care of me that night," Nancy stated.

"True," Demetri acknowledged. "The good thing is that she's in custody and shouldn't be able to get out."

"And the bad thing?" Jake asked.

"Turner's still walking around town with Caius," Demetri said. "Those two need to be brought down."

"Got any ideas?" I asked.

"I was checking out their property holdings a couple of days ago, which is how I found out about this burned out shack behind us," Demetri responded. "They've got a little cabin about thirty minutes north of here in a remote area that I imagine they probably went to in order to get away from the action down here for a while."

"I think we're forgetting one thing here, guys," Joe piped up.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Turner is a police officer," Joe pointed out. "He controls the police here, so how are we supposed to nab him?"

I watched as Demetri's eyes gleamed with mischief. I wondered what he had up his sleeve.

"Well, I've been in this business since you guys were little things crawling around in diapers," Demetri replied. "Over the years I've made quite a few connections with people pretty high up in law enforcement."

"So you're thinking about calling in the state police?" I asked him.

Demetri shook his head at me with a big grin on his face. "Since we're talking about millions of dollars being swindled away on this drug scheme of theirs, I'm pretty sure we can go higher than state police. I was planning on calling one of my buddies with the FBI."

It wasn't long before we heard sirens blaring out. All of us looked at each other quickly before coming to the same decision. We needed to get out of here before someone sees us. I think we all decided that it would be in our best interest to attempt surprising Turner and Caius before they get arrested.

As I got into the car with Nancy, I pealed away before the sirens came any closer. I saw Nancy pull out her cell phone from the corner of my eye and dial a number.

"Jake, where do you want to meet up?" Nancy asked. Nancy nodded before replying, "Okay, I'll let Frank know."

I turned to look at her for a moment to see what we were doing. "We're all going to meet at an old farmhouse that's about twenty miles outside of town," Nancy said.

"How am I supposed to know where to turn to get there?" I asked as I altered my route to start heading out of town.

"There's going to be a small sign at the road that says 'Foxtails Retreat', Nancy replied.

Nancy and I were pretty quiet on the drive out to the farmhouse where everyone would be gathering soon. After such a close call in that warehouse, I felt like there was so much for us to say to one another. I just didn't want to bring all of it up while we were still in the middle of this insanity. I have a feeling that Nancy was probably feeling the same way based on her silence. Every time that I glanced her way, she was just leaning her head against the passenger window staring outside at the passing landscape with a glazed expression on her face.

I finally saw the small sign labelled 'Foxtails Retreat' next to a small dirt lane. I turned onto the dirt track and began the slightly bumpy ride. If I had thought that I would clearly see the farmhouse we were heading toward, I would be wrong. I drove a quarter mile on this little dirt road without seeing anything more than tall grass and trees on either side on the road.

"How far do you think we have to drive?" I finally asked.

Nancy turned to look at me before replying, "They didn't say, but we saw the sign, so this must be the right road to take."

Another quarter mile led to a blind turn in the road. When I finally saw what was on the other side of the curve, I was relieved to see that we had finally made it to the farmhouse.

The farmhouse wasn't exactly like what I had envisioned. I guess I was thinking of something that might have resembled a large barn that was in disrepair. This place was more like a large cottage. Everything around it looked like it was being well kept and even lived in.

Nancy and I got out of the car as soon as the ignition was turned off and made our way to the front door. The door was opened by Joe before we even reached a hand out to knock on it.

"Come join the party," Joe quipped.

I placed my hand on Nancy's lower back and ushered her inside. Everyone was already here it seemed as I surveyed the interior. I turned toward my brother, who had already crashed on a nearby sofa.

"So, any news on what's going to happen now?" I asked him.

Joe looked over at me from his position on the sofa. "Well, Demetri called his friend with the FBI on the way over here. The agent, Garrett, gave him the surprising news that the FBI had already been watching things with Volturi Pharmaceuticals for a while now."

"Apparently they arrested some people about a year ago for another case that just happened to have some of the raw material in their posession," Jake spoke up as he came to sit down on the opposite end of the sofa.

"Anyway, when they saw the raw material, they managed to trace it back to the pharmaceutical company," Joe explained.

"How did they manage to do that?" I asked.

Joe shrugged. "I don't know but I guess they have their ways. Garrett and some of his men have been investigating the place quietly ever since. He was thrilled to hear that we have some additional information that can be used to prosecute these guys."

"So when will they be here?" Nancy asked.

"Within minutes," Demetri said.

True to his word, another car pulled up in front of the house and four men stepped out of it. They looked like the typical agent with dark suits and sunglasses on. As much as I was glad to get some additional help on this case, I really didn't think much about having to work with federal agents. They usually had a great big stick up their butts, not to mention most of them don't care to actually work with other detectives.

Demetri opened the door and greeted the man standing in front cheerfully. "Garrett, it's great to see you again."

"It's been a long time," Garrett responded.

Garrett turned toward the rest of us, who were still gathered around the sofa. "You must be Frank, Joe, and Nancy. I've heard good things about you three."

"What about me?" Jake grumbled.

"Where have you heard about us?" Nancy asked.

Garrett chuckled softly. "Any detective that solves as many cases as you guys do will earn a little attention on occasion from the bureau. A lot of the agents would never admit that someone younger than them might be better at the job. Luckily for you, I'm not one of them. I commend you on how well you've done with this case. Granted, we haven't been investing all of our man-power on this case, but you've still managed to come up with more evidence in less than a week that we can use against Caius and Turner than we have in the past year."

"So where do we go from here?" I asked.

"Good question," Garrett said. "I've got some more men staked out at the place where Turner and Caius retreated to after leaving the warehouse. They're pretty much just standing by and making sure that no one leaves the premises until we get down there."

"We get to come along?" Nancy asked with a hint of amazement in her voice.

"Don't you want to?" Garrett questioned quizzically.

"Of course we do," Nancy confirmed. "It's just that most people try to push us away by telling the same old story of it being too dangerous."

"And what do you do when they tell you that?" Garrett asked with a hint of a smile on his face.

"We usually go anyway and try to stay hidden from them," Nancy answered a little embarrassed.

"And that my dear is the reason why I'm allowing all of you to come along if you wish to," Garrett said smiling. "I'd rather know where you guys are so you can't get into any trouble."

We broke out in grins knowing that not only do we seem to find trouble, but trouble also finds us. It wasn't long before Garrett was on the phone corresponding with his men that were at the house watching Caius. They were trying to get the time line straight so that the whole operation would go smoothly when we all arrived and everything was set in motion.

Twenty minutes later all of us were leaving the farmhouse and piling into cars. Garrett had given us strict instructions on where we were headed as well as what location he wanted us to be in. He informed us implicitly that while he was allowing us to come along, he wanted us to stay back from the actual action taking place because he didn't want any of us at risk for injury. The rest of the agents would be prepared with bullet-proof vests and guns while all of us were just unarmed civilians. While I regretted not being able to really be involved in everything going down today, I understood the reasoning behind it. I also had to give Garrett credit for allowing us to come along in the first place. That's definitely not something that a lot of people would have done.

I pulled the car up behind Garrett's vehicle near the front entrance to Caius's vacation home. While the house was substantial in size, it wasn't fenced in like I expected for someone of Caius's stature. Surprisingly enough, we could have just driven up the drive to the front door. The drive wasn't even as long as the Cullen's.

Garrett stepped out of his car and said something over a walkie talkie as he walked back toward where we were parked.

"Guys, my group will be heading inside in about five minutes, so I would like all of you just to stay out here," Garrett told us as we all stood around the vehicles. "I don't want to run the risk of any of you becoming injured in the process of taking these guys down, so please follow my instructions."

We all nodded our agreement and I was actually a little surprised to see the looks on everyone's faces. They seemed to be serious about staying out of the way, which is something new to me. I can't really speak for Jake, but Joe and Nancy are definitely the type to want to be hands-on in any sort of operation.

I stood by the car and watched as the doors were broken in and agents ran into the house holding guns in the air and shouting orders. I felt my hand being gripped and looked down to see Nancy's hand wrapped in mine. She was staring straight ahead toward the house focusing on the entrance. I squeezed her hand gently and brought my attention back to the house. I was ready to see all of this over.

I finally saw some of the agents emerge from the house with Caius in tow. His hands were handcuffed behind his back and his head was hanging low. I think he finally realized that his plans were finished and he would be held accountable for all of his actions. The agents led Caius to a vehicle and put him into the back seat.

As soon as Caius was placed inside the vehicle, I saw Turner being led out. Unlike Caius, Turner's eyes were full of hatred and glared at us. I instinctively brought Nancy closer to my side under the murderous gaze he focused on us.

After Turner was placed in a separate vehicle, they cars drove off and Garrett walked back over to us.

"I see that everything went according to plan," I mentioned to him.

Garrett nodded. "I always hope for things to end this easily; but as you guys know, it doesn't always happen. Of course, we still have the justice system to deal with, but I'm pretty sure that it will go fairly well considering the evidence we've gathered in addition to your testimony on the case."

"Well, it was certainly a pleasure meeting you," Joe said as he extended his hand to shake Garrett's.

"Likewise," Garrett returned. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you in the near future. Take care of yourselves."

"You too," I replied.

Garrett turned away and walked back toward his car. All of us stood there for a few additional minutes as we watched the last of the agents drive away from the house.

"Anyone want to grab a burger?" Joe asked.

All of broke out into laughter at Joe's random remark. Leave it to him to always think about his stomach. We filed back into our vehicles and drove away from the scene and toward a good place to find a burger.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N So this chapter is more or less wrapping up the case. There will be one more chapter, which is going to be an epilogue of sorts. I hope you guys enjoy and I do intend to have the final chapter posted before Thanksgiving.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-five**

**Nancy's POV**

The next few days was a flurry of activity around Chicago. All of us involved were once again required to give our statements of what happened in the warehouse as well as all of the evidence we had gathered on the case so far.

Once the FBI had both Turner and Caius behind bars, it wasn't long before both of them had cracked and was not only spilling the beans on how they carried out the drug embezzlement, but also naming all of the people that was part of the process.

Volturi Pharmaceuticals really took a hit in the public sector when all of this came out in a breaking news report Monday morning. There were several television crews, both local and national, that were filming everything they could from the raid that took place there. The federal agents came in and rounded up everyone that had already been named in the case. Once those people were all rounded up, they ended up arresting even more employees that had helped with the crime. Most of the people that were arrested during this second round were people that were so far down the totem pole that Caius and Turner never even knew about them. I was amazed that they managed to keep this as tight-lipped as they had with the number of people involved in the whole thing.

I watched report after report as the embezzlement scheme was brought to public knowledge and multiple people gave statements on the status of how many people were being indicted for being a part of the ring.

A couple of days after all of this happened, Aro dropped by the Cullen's house. He was very cordial and greeted all of us warmly. I could tell that he was saddened that Caius would stoop to such a level when Aro had held such faith in the man. Regardless of the fact that a family member would be disloyal to a business that he started from the ground up, Aro seemed to be trying to look for the sun shining down on a stormy day. He knew better than I did how much of a beating his company was going to take from all of the negative media attention thrown at it, but I believe that he was truly planning to stand by and pull his company back up from the mud into the limelight once again.

I'm not quite sure what Frank and I have been doing the past few days. Ever since we got out of the warehouse mostly unscathed, I knew that we probably needed to have a give heart-to-heart with one another. Unfortunately, I don't think either of us really have been up to it. I, for one, have been dreading this conversation for a while now because I just don't know what will happen between us now that this case is over.

It's twilight and I'm relaxing on the porch swing as I gently glide back and forth at a steady rhythm. Tomorrow Frank and Joe will be leaving to travel back to Bayport, and I'm supposed to drive back to River Heights. I know that Frank cares deeply for me, but I honestly can't imagine how a long distance relationship will work between the two of us.

Even though I've come to terms with my break-up with Ned, I don't want that to happen to Frank and I. I'm scared to move forward into something that I can't be sure will last. That's why I'm probably doing the cowardly thing by sitting out here on the swing while everyone is inside talking to one another and enjoying their time together before we separate. I haven't even taken the time to pack my bags because I don't want to leave this place. Being here reminds me of what Frank and I share together.

In my mind, I find leaving to be equivalent to leaving us behind. I know that it's probably an irrational thought on my behalf, but it doesn't keep it from existing.

"Hey," Frank's voice called out softly interrupting my jumbled thoughts.

"Hey," I said as I gave him a small smile.

Frank came over and sat down beside me on the swing. "I wondered where you had wondered off to while everyone was inside."

"I wasn't really in the celebrating mood," I told him as I looked down at my feet.

"How come?" Frank asked. "We've solved the case and everyone is safe and sound. You should be celebrating another job well done."

"I guess it's more the fact that since the case is closed, everything is going to return to normal again," I replied still not looking at him.

I felt his gaze on me as he weighed the words that had just come out of my mouth. I knew how intelligent Frank was and wouldn't doubt that he might understand what I was really worried about.

Frank grabbed my hand and held it in his. "Nan, my feelings for you aren't going to change just because the case is over."

When I didn't look over at him, Frank used his fingertips to turn my face so that I was finally meeting his gaze. "I love you and want to be with you. I would actually love for you to move to Bayport and work with Joe and I at our detective agency. I know that might be an unreasonable thing to ask because you have your own life and wouldn't want to just pick up and move. I guess I just need you to realize that the option is always available," he finished.

I think I just sat there staring at him for what seemed like several minutes before I could even comprehend everything that he was telling me. I've been so used to parting our ways at the end of a case that I never considered an option that could lead me to be where Frank was.

"Look, I'm not asking you to leave everything behind right now so that we can be together," Frank continued. "I just wanted to put that out there. We've both had really stable relationships with people that didn't last. I know that you're probably scared of the future because I'll admit that this scares me a little. The thing is that I'm willing to jump in and give us a chance. I won't force you into anything, but I'm hoping you'll put aside your fears and jump in with me."

I couldn't help but appreciate the honesty of Frank's words to me. I really was scared of our relationship because of what I went through with Ned. Ned and I had something that I thought would last forever. I realize now that some of the problems that cropped up were probably indicators of future instability, but at the time those things didn't mean anything to me. On the other hand, Frank and I have always had an attraction to each other, even while we were dating other people. There have been so many times that we shared intimate moments with one another, but wouldn't do anything about it because of being ties to other people and not wanting to hurt them.

Thinking on things now, I'm pretty sure that Frank and I could have been happy with one another long before now. Granted, we still have a bit of a logistics problem since I live in River Heights and he's in Bayport, but Frank's offering me the opportunity to move up there with him and work in their detective agency. I have to admit that it would be far easier for me to pick up where I am since I don't have a business to run or even a job for that matter.

"Okay," I said almost surprising myself.

"Okay?" Frank asked incredulously.

I nodded my head before trying to explain myself to him. "Before this case came up, I was pretty much lost. I couldn't even say for sure whether I wanted to continue detective work in the future. I only took the case in the first place because I felt bad for a girl being missing knowing how a lot of those people end up being found. I didn't want to see that happen to Edward, who was clearly in love with Bella, so I took the case."

"Getting back to sleuthing helped me realize that it's what I want to do with my life," I continued. "I don't need to listen to the people who have discouraged me from something that I love to do. It would be wrong of me to listen to what others think and follow their lead instead of listening to my heart."

I looked up at Frank with eyes that were beginning to collect moisture. "I'm going to be brave and follow my heart and it's leading me to you."

The words had barely left my mouth before Frank's lips had descended upon mine. Out of all of the kisses that we've shared over the years, this one was definitely the most passionate. We were both left breathless when we finally broke away from each other.

"I love you," Frank said as he leaned his forehead against mine.

"I love you, too," I replied back.

We stood up from the swing and linked our hands together as we walked back inside the house where everyone else was hanging out celebrating. I finally had a smile on my face and felt like celebrating the end of a case. I knew that my life was far from being perfectly in order, but I somehow felt like I might be taking a step in the right direction.

The evening seemed to go on forever. All of us ended up settling down in the living room and watching a movie together. It was nearing midnight before anyone made the move to actually go to bed. I knew that I would be exhausted the next day, but it was nice being around everyone on our final night together.

I woke up early the next morning and began the task of packing all of my stuff into my suitcase. I probably should have done it last night, but by the time I got up to bed, all I could really think about was sleep. I was pretty much asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I was a little sad at the fact that I was parting from Frank, but it was necessary for the time being. I still needed to get home and inform my dad about my decision to move to Bayport. I wasn't really sure what his response might be, so I was crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I knew he respected Frank, so that would work to my advantage. The only problem I could see was that since I was his only child, he might not like the idea of me moving away.

I was trying to formulate a plan on how to broach the topic with him as I folded my clothes and placed them neatly in the suitcase.

I heard a knock on the door before it opened to reveal a smiling Frank. "Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," I responded back. "Have you finished packing?"

"Just finished," Frank told me. "Of course, I don't really try to fold everything as neatly as you do. I tend to just toss it in and hope the suitcase will close."

I shook my head at him. "I bet Joe does the same."

"He's even worse," Frank admitted. "I think he balls his clothes up first."

I finished putting the last of my clothing in the suitcase before grabbing my toiletry bag and placing it neatly on top. I then zipped everything up and was ready to place it in the trunk of my car.

"Want me to take this down for you?" Frank asked.

"I'll walk with you," I told him as he picked up the suitcase.

We descended the stairs together. At the bottom of the stairs, I could smell something heavenly coming from the direction of the kitchen. My mouth immediately began watering. Frank and I continued out the front door to where my car was parked and put the suitcase inside the trunk. After closing the trunk, we walked back inside together and headed for the kitchen.

Everyone was gathered around in the kitchen where Esme had prepared a huge breakfast for all of us. It was spread out along the counter in a buffet style and people had already piled various items on their plates as they stood around chatting happily with each other.

Frank and I grabbed two plates and scooped a little bit of everything on them. Esme poured each of us a glass of juice and we greedily ate our food. I milled around chatting a little with everyone who was gathered in the kitchen. I was pretty sure that a lot of us would end up keeping in touch with each other even after all of this was done.

It wasn't long before the morning hours were waning away and Frank and Joe were due to leave to catch their flight back to Bayport. I needed to get on the road so that I could be back in River Heights before dinner and prepare for a long conversation with my dad.

We said our goodbyes and gave hugs to everyone before heading out. I was met at my car by Frank. I watched as Joe walked over to their rental and sat down in the driver's seat waiting on Frank.

"I'm going to miss you," Frank said.

"I'm going to miss you, too," I replied. "I need to talk to my dad tonight about moving to Bayport. I'll let you know how it goes."

"I'm sure he'll be sad to let you go but understand why you want to move," Frank reassured.

"I hope you're right," I said.

"Don't worry," Frank told me. "Everything will work out in the end."

Frank leaned down to give me a lingering goodbye kiss before giving a cheerful wave on the way to the car. I smiled and waved back before getting into my own car and beginning the drive back to River Heights.


	26. Chapter 26

A/N I'm glad I finally put up a chapter in a reasonable period of time. It was starting to frustrate me, not to mention how you guys must feel since you're reading it. Anyway, this is the final chapter of the story. I hope you all liked it.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-six**

**Nancy's POV**

Three months have passed since the day I drove back home from Chicago. My life turned into a whirlwind for that period of time.

That evening when I sat down for dinner with my dad, I took a deep breath before explaining to him that I wanted to move to Bayport. I gave him what I felt was a systematic list of reasons why this would be a good decision. I was still a little nervous about his response, but it turned out that I shouldn't have worried.

_My dad slowly put his fork and knife down on his plate and wiped his mouth with the napkin that had been placed in his lap._

_ "Nancy, I know you're worried about what I'm going to say," he began. "Your mother was the love of my life and even though she died far too young, I still love her with all my heart. What I want you to understand is that sometimes you need to follow your heart because it will always lead you in the right direction. I followed my heart long ago and ended up married to your mother before having you. It was the best decision I ever made."_

_ "So you're not upset that I want to move away?" I asked._

_ "I'm going to miss you, Nancy," Carson replied. "However, I do expect you to visit often."_

I spent the next couple weeks following that conversation getting everything packed and ready to go for the biggest move of my life. I spent as much of my time as I could hanging out with Bess and George. Although they were both saddened by the fact I was going to be moving, they promised to visit and wished me well.

I think the actual move was the hardest part. I finally settled on a date to drive my car, which was crammed full of my things, up to Bayport. Frank and Joe helped with the unloading of the vehicle, but it was only into their spare bedroom in the house they lived in with their parents.

It was the first time that I had met Frank's mother and Aunt Gertrude since I had actually run across his father, Fenton, a couple of years earlier at a convention. I was brought back to feeling like a teen-aged girl, who desperately wanted her boyfriend's parents to approve of her. My girlish ways didn't last long because Frank's mother was quick to put me at ease in her home and Aunt Gertrude was immediately complaining about how skinny I looked and offering up treats to try to fatten me up a little.

While I'll be the first to admit that I love Frank's parents as well as have a fondness for Aunt Gertrude, there was no way that I could stay in their house on a permanent basis.

As much as they would tell me that they didn't mind my staying there with them, I still felt a bit intrusive. There was also the fact that Frank and I had little to no privacy whatsoever at the house. My other reason for wanting to find a place of my own was that this was really the first time that I'm taking that leap forward and trying to make my own place in society without the help of friends or family. In my mind, it would be a great achievement for me to finally be able to provide food, clothing, and shelter for myself just based off of my income and not anything additional that might be supplemented by others.

I gave myself a week to adjust to the town and life in general outside of River Heights before I started looking through the newspapers and local magazines for apartments and small houses. I found that I had enough saved up to easily be able to afford a nice apartment. A down payment on a small house might be stretching it a little, but I knew that purchasing a house was usually a good investment in the long run.

Since Frank and Joe were staying busy with their detective agency, Frank's mom would come along with me to look at the places I was interested in. I'm sure I could have done this on my own, but it was a bit of a relief to have someone else there whose opinion I trusted. Plus, I had the added benefit of her knowing a lot of the real estate agents in town.

I'm not sure how many places I looked at over the next couple of weeks. The images just seemed to fly by making it easy to forget what I saw and why I didn't like it in the first place. After two weeks, I finally stepped foot into a house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms that I fell in love with. The place had an open design to it that was simple and left a lot of leeway available in how to decorate it. There were lots of windows that let in plenty of light during the day. The yard was small, but I was okay with that since I would be the one taking care of it.

I took lots of pictures on my phone of the exterior as well as the interior and forwarded them to my dad. I knew that he wanted to see the place I was interested in. After taking the evening to discuss the house with both my dad as well as Frank and his family, I decided to make an offer the next morning for it.

Frank's mom helped me with the bargaining process of procuring a good price on the house. She really was a godsend for this whole event. I'm not sure what I would have done without her. It didn't take long before the real estate agent confirmed that my offer had been accepted and we moved forward into scheduling a closing date.

My dad kept in touch with me constantly during all of this. He also wore me down on making the down payment myself. I listened to him explain how he understood why I wanted my independence with this new step in my life, but he thought that I would be spending too much of my savings to make a down payment. I didn't like the fact that he was probably right, but I knew where he was coming from. That was why my dad flew into Bayport for the very first time on the day before my closing on the home.

The next day he took a quick tour of the home before we drove over to the bank where the paperwork would all be looked over and signed. It was a lot more paperwork than I expected to see, and it made me feel better to have my dad there. I read over everything carefully and signed my life away on all the dotted lines. My dad wrote the check required for the down payment on my new house and keys were handed over. I was officially a new home-owner.

Shortly after I began working with Frank and Joe at their detective agency. Most of the cases I worked on were people coming in wanting to check out their spouses to see if they were being cheated on. It wasn't exactly the most exciting work, but it didn't require too much time to take care of those sort of cases. We charged an hourly rate for cases like that and it did help pay the bills. Every once in a while, something truly interesting would come up that all three of us would work on, but I soon found myself getting restless.

I had a long chat over dinner one evening with Frank about my restlessness at work. Frank suggested that I might should look around for something else to help fill up some of my time. It took me a little while before I found the perfect opportunity available for me.

The local newspaper just happened to be looking for a new columnist. I applied for the position and was given the job. I was lucky enough that they didn't have any particular type of column in mind because they apparently just needed to fill some space up in the paper.

That's how I began writing a small article in the paper. The subject matter would change depending on the day of the week, but it was all based off of topics that I had a good bit of knowledge about. Some of the articles that were written were about self-defense, how to avoid being scammed, and the latest technology made available.

Having a daily column on top of working at the detective agency seemed to be just what I needed to lift my spirits and keep me busy. Frank was happy to see my success paying off when I began getting great reviews on the column.

That brings us to today. I'm on my first official trip back to River Heights with Frank tagging along as my date because today Ned is getting married.

Not only has my life taken quite a turn in past few months, but I feel like I've also been on an emotional rollercoaster. I can remember a time that I was saddened by the thought of Ned marrying someone other than me, but those days have long been over. Today, I can't help but to keep a bright smile on my face as I watch the wedding take place.

I'm so happy that Ned found the girl he was meant to be with because I'm pretty sure that I'm sitting right next to the guy that I will be marrying one day.

After the ceremony was over, we followed everyone to the reception. I guess Frank and I took our time getting there because we seemed to be toward the back of the greeting line that had formed. We just stood side by side holding hands with silly grins on our faces as we inched up slowly. I'm not sure how much time had passed, but soon we were next in line to greet the newlyweds.

"Congratulations!" I cheered as I took Ned's hand in mine.

"Nancy!" Ned shouted. "It's so great to see you. I didn't think you would make it."

"How could I not come to your wedding?" I chided.

"Well, I knew that you had recently moved to Bayport and were working," Ned said shrugging. "I just thought you might have too much going on right now."

"You should know by now that I would put aside whatever I was working on to come to something as important as your wedding," I stated.

"I really am glad you made it," he said giving me a quick hug. "Have you met my wife, Jessica?"

I turned to Jessica with a smile on my face, "It's a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations on marrying a good guy."

Jessica smiled brightly at me, "Thank you for coming. I know that it means a lot to Ned that you came today."

"I'm glad to be here," I told her before excusing myself and allowing the people behind me their time.

Frank and I mingled for a bit before I found Bess and George. Frank excused himself to allow the three of us to catch up on everything that had been going on in our lives. It really didn't take us too long to update each other because we had been in constant contact via phone and computer since my move.

I looked up from our conversation at one point to see Frank and Ned talking to one another in the far corner of the room. I couldn't tell what they might be talking about with one another, but it seemed to be a serious conversation. Just as I was contemplating moving closer to them, they broke apart. While Ned made his way back to his bride, Frank walked back toward where I was standing with the girls.

"What was that about?" I asked quietly when he reached my side.

"I'll tell you later," Frank replied.

Music began playing and we halted our conversation to watch Ned and Jessica dance their first dance together on the dance floor. When the dance was over they danced a dance with their parents and then everyone was invited to join the dance floor.

Frank turned to me and asked, "Will you dance with me?" as he held out his hand.

"Of course," I answered taking his hand and following him onto the dance floor.

They were playing a slow song and danced together in time with the music.

"Ned was congratulating me earlier," Frank told me.

"Congratulating you for what?" I asked slightly confused.

Frank smiled at me. "For finally manning up and asking you out officially."

"He approves?" I asked a bit surprised. I wouldn't have thought Ned would ever really like Frank and I being together.

"Yes, he does," Frank answered. "Even though I've experienced some animosity from him over the years when it comes to you, I think he finally understands how good we are for each other."

"Is that what you think?" I asked coyly.

"Yes, Miss Drew, that is exactly what I think," Frank said. "And now I think you need to kiss me."

With those words, I wrapped my arms tighter around his neck and brought his lips down to meet mine in a searing kiss that made everyone around us disappear in the moment. I knew that wherever Frank was, I would be home. He was where my heart is.


End file.
